The teachings of Advaita (nondual) Vedanta can appear drab and unfeeling. Luckily, there’s more to the story…

Long back in the 8th century, there lived a teacher of Advaita Vedanta named Mandana Misra. He was a contemporary of Sankara, who is credited with reviving Hinduism in India. Mandana Misra taught that love, in the form of passionate affection, is a driving force that initially induces one to seek the higher reality.

Mandana Mimisra wrote a treatise called Brahma-siddhi (Realization of Brahman, or Ultimate Reality) which had a profound impact on the development of post-Sankara Advaita.

In Mandana Misra’s words, from his prosaic Brahma-siddhi (Realization of Brahman) we find:

“It is established that Brahman is essentially bliss, the higher self-luminosity of atman; the atman is essentially bliss, since it is attained through the higher passion.”

Passionate love (prema), preached by Mandana Misra, bears a strong resemblance not only to bhakti (literally: being a part of, hence — attachment, devotion), propounded by Ramanuja, a follower of Vishnu, but also to the ‘gentle tenderness’ (sneha), which is so important for the religious mysticism of Madhva and other Krishna devotees.

Desires are a necessary and natural part of life; attachments are an unnecessary source of suffering. Since they are different, desires remain when attachments are relinquished, so we are still motivated to live our lives fully and well. In fact, we are better able to do so, since we are no longer helpless puppets dancing on the strings of compulsive cravings that distort our priorities and lives.

Relinquishing attachments leaves us not apathetic but calm, not joyless but content, not indifferent to others but more concerned and caring. According to Patanjali, who wrote the classic text on yoga two thousand years ago, “When we are established in non-attachment, the nature and purpose of existence is understood.”

Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind
Roger Walsh

.
.

Roger Walsh
Dr. Roger Walsh website, Wikipedia

Roger Walsh (MD, Ph.D.) is an Australian professor of Psychiatry, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, within UCI’s College of Medicine. For over 30 years Walsh has been researching how to enhance well-being — physical, psychological, social and spiritual.  He is married to the psychologist Frances Vaughan, and together they have written a number of books.

Walsh’s broad interests have taken him on a journey covering:  

• Psychologies such as integral, humanistic, transpersonal, existential, and Asian
• Transformative practices such as psychotherapy and meditation
• Religious issues such as shamanism, contemplation, psychedelics, and spiritual practices

Books written by Roger Walsh include:

• A Sociable God: Toward a New Understanding of Religion
• Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind
• Paths Beyond Ego (New Consciousness Reader)
• The World of Shamanism: New Views of an Ancient Tradition
• The World’s Great Wisdom: Timeless Teachings from Religions and Philosophies (SUNY Series in Integral Theory)

Roger Walsh — Understanding Religion: Conventional & Postconventional Are VERY Different

Even if one occasionally is able to turn their mind away from the world and concentrate it back on the Self, it almost immediately loses its concentration and wanders back to he world. Why does this happen? Ramana said it is because one believes that the world is real. “But for the belief that the world is real, it would be quite easy for you to obtain the revelation of the Self.” The greatest wonder, Ramana declared, is that, being always the Self, one is striving to become the Self.

Ramana Maharshi: The Crown Jewel of Advaita
John Grimes

Ramana Maharshi 
1879-1950

. Sri Ramana
. Sri Ramana Maharshi ashram
. Wikipedia
. Teachings of Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharsi was probably the most famous sage of the twentieth century both in India and the rest of the world.

Ramana Maharshi was a sage and jivanmukta (one who, in the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, has gained and assimilated self-knowledge, thus is liberated with an inner sense of freedom while living). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, in Tiruchuli, Tamil Nadu, South India, and given the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in 1907, by one of his first devotees — the name struck and remains that by which he is widely known.

In 1896, at the age of 16, he became aware that “his real nature was formless, immanent consciousness,” resulting in a state which he later described as enlightenment. Six weeks later he left his family home in Madurai, and journeyed to the holy mountain Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai,  South India, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Although his first years in Tiruvannamalai were spent in solitude, he soon attracted devotees, and in later years a community grew up around him. Although worshipped by thousands, he never received private gifts, and treated all with equal respect. Since the 1930s his teachings have been popularized in the west.

Throughout the years, Ramana Maharshi responded to many questions on spiritual matters, but always insisted that silence was the purest teaching.  In response to questions on self-liberation and the classic texts on Yoga and Vedanta, Ramana recommended self-enquiry as the principal way to awaken to “I-I”, thereby realizing the Self and attaining liberation. He also recommended Bhakti, as well as giving his approval to a variety of paths and practices.