Fwd: Advaita website

[Jsra Prasad]

Respected All,

Namaste. You may follow the forwarded mail which is self explanatory.
FYI please.

With regards,
Prasad


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aravinda Rao <karav...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 20 May 2012 07:26:45 +0530
Subject: website
To:

Dear friends,


This is a letter about a website www.advaita-academy.org.


Many of us, who are very busy in life and busy with life, have, at some
point of time, the good fortune of realizing the need to introspect. I was
busy in police service, having joined in the Indian Police Service in 1977
and having worked in several sensitive places in the state of Andhra
Pradesh, till I retired in June last year. However, there was also an
undercurrent of self-enquiry in me which led to study of our religious and
philosophical texts, improving my knowledge of Sanskrit by doing an M.A
followed by a Ph.D in Vedanta. All this was a slow process of twenty years,
while I was actively engaged in police work. This is where I realized that
self-enquiry is not something which contradicts our work, but rather
supports it by clarifying our perspective on work and other issues in life.


After retirement, I am happy that I am associated with the website
www.advaita-academy.org. As the name indicates, it is on Vedanta. It is the
same Vedanta which Arjuna heard from Lord Krishna in the battle field and
came out more clear about his role and functions. What he did was
introspection, an analysis of his own emotions, and ethical doubts he
entertained.

Most of us are in this same quest, but we do not know the correct links
about where to find a good master, who is a good master to be followed and
so on. There are websites but we may not be aware of them. Hence I thought
of addressing all of you about this.


I have been writing blogs and articles for the above website. It so
happened that I have been asked to take over as the editor of the web
journal. I should confess that I am taking it up with all humility.


The readers, it is seen, are from different continents, reflecting the
Indian diaspora. They are the seekers, trying to know their cultural and
intellectual heritage. The fact that there are as many readers in America
as in India shows that a good percentage of the tiny group of Indians is
keen about their tradition. There are, of course, lovers of Indian thought
who are keen students of an alien tradition.


This website has, by and large, been traditional in the sense that it has
stuck to the basic texts of Advaita Vedanta, and to exposition of the
texts by scholars or those trained in that fashion. Our approach will
continue to be the same. The content will be traditional advaita in form,
to avoid the likelihood of getting bogged down or distracted by modern
theories. The idea is to preserve and strengthen our understanding before
we embark on comparisions.


I have an agenda for Sanskrit, the language in which all the advaita texts
have been composed, as every vedantic term is loaded with special
connotation.

Sanskrit might be a bit of a handicap for some readers, we have to admit.
However, some scholars have used technology and made the problem rather
simple. Today a student can learn Sanskrit more easily than a student a few
years ago, because of several online tutorials which have arrived. I would
advise the readers to look at the website www.samskritabharati.in and
follow the links. They have been doing a fantastic job in spreading
knowledge of Sanskrit all over the world.


Surely, the knowledge of Atman is not denied to one who does not know
Sanskrit, but some knowledge of the language will help you in two ways.
Firstly, we know the concepts better. This is required for the spiritual
exercises of śravaṇam (knowing the text), mananam (logically mulling over
the text), and nididhyāsanam (internalizing and living the text) which are
necessary steps in self-realization.


Secondly, some acquaintance with Sanskrit enables us to know whether we are
following a real master or an unreliable one.


I often tell my friends to test a teacher before listening to him. It is
simple. We can presume that anyone trying to teach Vedanta ought to have
read Gita thoroughly, and so we can give him a text of Gita with any
Sanskrit commentary. If the teacher can tolerably explain some passages,
then listen to him; be it an advaita exposition or dwaita or of any other
school. If the master is totally relying on the secondary sources like the
discourses of a Swami, then it is for us to follow the old rule – ‘buyer
beware’. We should know who the Swami, and then lend our ears to the
master. I am personally circumspect in this, as I know that the study of
texts is fast declining even in the traditional centres of learning.


Decline of Sanskrit learning is alarming. If the trend continues for a few
more years, we may be left with the digitized texts and with very few
teachers to interpret them. May be, we have to do something to strengthen
śāstra scholarship, so that the teaching tradition which has been kept
alive till today will continue to be so to guide our children.



I may add one more word about Sanskrit. It was the link language in India
for three to four millennia. One may recall that Shankara, who was born in
Kerala went round the country up to Srinagar to spread his message and set
up his pīṭham-s, or centers of learning. Buddhist writers who initially
wrote in Pali, later switched over to Sanskrit when they wanted to address
a larger audience across the sub-continent. All scholars in the country
wrote in Sanskrit whenever they addressed the whole of bharata varsha, and
wrote in their native language when they wanted to address their local
readers.


Sanskrit Transliteration.


This website has been using ITRANS which is freely downloadable (for
transliteration of Sanskrit words or verses). It employs a phonetic key
board and does not expect any prior skill in Sanskrit typing. The
complaint, however, is that it is jarring to the eye, as we have to shift
between the lower case and the upper case of the key board. A word like
Dhritarashtra (father of the Kauravas in Mahabharat), has to be typed as
dhRRitarAShTra to be phonetically correct. The other way is dhṛtarāṣṭra
which is what is found in all the books.


Besides, we do not find any text of any Swamiji in ITRANS. All standard
publishers like Ramakrishna Mission, Chinmaya, Arsha vidya gurukulam, use
the unicode which has now become universally popular. Most of the visitors
to our website are obviously readers of available books on Vedanta, where
ITRANS is never found.


The viewers of this website are welcome to contribute in either ITRANS or
in the widely used IAST (International Alphabet for Sanskrit
Transliteration). Conversion from ITRANS to IAST is very easy on the
website http://learnsanskrit.org/tools/sanscript , which has been suggested
by our web designers. One may type in ITRANS and ask for conversion into
Sanskrit or into IAST.


I will be grateful if you can take some time to circulate this information
among your friends, and Indian community networks or local FM radios in
your city.



Warm regards,

Aravinda Rao



--
Dr. Jsra Prasad,
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Sanskrit Studies
University of Hyderabad, Prof. C.R. Rao Road,
Hyderabad - 500 046 Tel: 040-2313 3803

[V Subrahmanian]

There is a nice article in Sanskrit authored by Shri Aravinda Rao in the latest issue of 'सम्भाषणसन्देशः’ journal (June 2012).  It is titled 'हे संस्कृतज्ञ, देशरक्षको भव’.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v

[shrinivasa varakhedi]

Dear Members,

I deem it fit to write a few words about Dr. K.Aravinda Rao, whose mail is forwarded to the list. This, i am sure, will inspire young readers of our list.

 

I am indeed very much happy to read the mail from Dr.K.Aravinda Rao, IPS, Red DGP, now residing in Hyd. Thanks to Dr. JSRA Prasad for taking interest in forwarding the mail to the list. The list is benefited. I know Dr. Aravinda Rao for many years whose inner pravritti was always towards Atma-vidyA. Being a successful IPS officer even after attaining the office of the DGP of AP state, he was working for his PhD in upaniShatsu j~nAnasvarUpam. His interest in promoting Sanskrit has a great impact in AP state. Many of his ideas to promote Sanskrit and well as Shastric studies are very much practical. I am much benefited by many interactions with him.   

Now he is fully active in the studies and promotion activities of Sanskrit and allied subjects. I on behalf of BVP and on my own behalf welcome him to the group. 

Dr. Aravinda Rao comes from a different community. He is an exemplary personality for all of us. The BVP community lokks forward to his contributions. 

warm regards,

shrivara

--
निराशीर्निर्ममो भूत्वा युध्यस्व विगतज्वरः।। (भ.गी.)
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