Month: April 2022
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Five Delusions Discussed In Advaita Vedanta
The translator of Kaivalya Navaneeta: The Cream of Emancipation offers us a clear, if also tantalizing, gloss. When the disciple states that he is “now free from the delusions of mind,” Swami Sri Ramananda Saraswathi, the translator, inserts a footnote: “The delusions [he is referring to] are of five kinds: (1) that the world is…
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If The Jnani Is All Jivas, Then How Can Others Remain Bound?
The disciple raises a very challenging question to his Advaita Vedanta teacher: Lord, if as you say he [the jnani, or fully realized being] is all jivas when he is liberated, how can others remain bound? If the jivas are said to be diverse, he [the jnani] cannot be all. All-knowing Master! please answer me…
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The Longing For Liberation In Kaivalya Navaneeta
The Kaivalya Navaneeta opens: “The Sages say that there are four prerequisites for realisation of the Truth,” the fourth being “the long for Liberation” (Kaivalya Navaneeta: The Cream of Emancipation, p. 3.). We learn more about this intense longing for Liberation in verses 12-14: 12. He alone is fit for knowledge who, suffering from the…
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Taking The Central Presupposition Into Question
Part 1 can be read here. * The Most Fundamental Question The most fundamental question is: “Who am I?” This can be shown through two different proofs, those that Ramana Maharshi offers in different texts. Two Proofs Proof #1: Pronouns as Clues What is the condition of possibility for there being an “it” or “its”?…
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Existential Opening And No Man’s Land
I. In The Beginning… In the beginning was the existential opening. And what it said to me was: “You do not know yourself.” And I who do not know myself knew that it was right. Before the beginning of the existential opening, there was, in fact, no beginning at all. Deep down, I felt that…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 