| willytex@yahoo.com 2006-09-07, 9:34 pm |
| According to the Shankaracharya of Dwarka, Swami Svarupanand Saraswati,
the Mahesh Yogi used to put up a picture of Guru Dev and give talks,
all over India, in Brahmanand's name. Swami Svarup says that Acharya
Shree, that is, Swami Brahmanand Saraswati, used to initiate aspirants
with the bija mantra of their Ista Devata.
The Guru Dev we are speaking of is H. H. Swami Brahmanand Saraswati,
the late Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath, U.P. Himalayas. Swamiji was a
member of the Dasanami Sampradaya of the Shankara Guruparampara. Our
Guru Dev, by all indications, was a Shankara Adwaita Vedantin.
Based on this information it should be obvious then, even to the casual
reader, that our Guru Dev practiced a mantra meditation that is
transcendental, and used a non-semantic mnemonic device as a meditation
aid, a thought tool sound vibration, just like present-day TMers use in
their meditation. It's just obvious.
However, according to some respondents on this newsgroup, our Guru Dev
has nothing to do with any TM mantras, including those of Sri Vidya,
and no connection to the Maharishi himself.
Can you believe that?
One respondent even made the claim, apparently based on an exhaustive
Google search, that there was not one single temple in all of India
where a meditation that is transcendental is practiced and that there
were no TM mantras in the whole of Bharatvarsh. How he would know this
by surfing the internet I don't know.
Shankaracharya, the Adi
The fact is that our TMer tradition traces itself to the
Shankaracharya, author of the Sutrabhyasa, the one who founded four
mathas, the Shankara who was born in Kerala and who lived and taught in
the 9th century.
So lets go figure.
Oh! I get it - the informer mentioned above is thinking that the
historical Buddha lived in 500 B.C., and that Shankara lived before
that, and that all the rest of human history, on the entire planet,
will have to be adjusted BACK over 500 years to fit his agenda,
including the birth of Christ and the discovery of the telescope?
According to one particular a.m.t. respondent, Sankara lived over 500
years before the historical Buddha, before Dharmakirti, and Shankara
didn't even teach Adwaita in the first place, he taught Bhakti and
wrote the Bhaja Govindam!
So, someone is obviously confused, as to the facts.
Either that, or the Shankara we're taking about was a much later
impostor who put on the ochre robe, took pen in hand and composed a
topsy-turvey interpretation of the Brahma Sutra of Badarayana in order
to confuse the people. Is so, Shankara would be classed as a rank
crypto-Buddhist who quoted Dharmakirti by retrographitas, and for some
strange reason threw out the Srimad Bhagwatam as so much hearsay,
adopting instead the 'appearance-only doctrine' from Shakya the Muni;
and that Shankara taught the theory of 'maya' as a deception in order
to bring the dualists of India back into the Hindu fold.
The facts about the TMer tradition
All the TM mantras are found in the Vedic literature. The Ayerveda was
revealed to the Rishis by Lord Dhanvantari. Then the Sage Vyasa
attached the M=E2n.d.=FBkya Upanis.ad. to the Atharva Veda and the Brahma
Sutras to the Vedanta. Our root guru, Sri Gaudapada made comments on
the Omkara in Mandukhyakarika. And, we have the Soundaryalahari, which
was composed by Acharya Shree.
In addition, we have the Sankhya Sutras complied by Sage Kapila and
Maharishi Patanjali nicely compiled Yoga Sutras explaining the Pranava,
and thus Shankara, Vyasa, and Vascapati Mishra wrote commentaries for
our understanding.
In fact, the great sentence from the Atharva Veda contains the phrase
"ayam =E2tm=E2 brahma" - this Self is Brahman, the TM slogan. All the TM
bija mantras are listed in the Tantras, Ratnavali, Tantrasara, etc. All
these are considered to be Vedic literature.
The bija mantras used in TM are non-semantic sound vibrations - they
are not intended to be associated with any particular idea or ideology.
They're just thought-tools to be used as aids to meditation. Shakya the
Muni and Patanjali both agreed on this.
TM is Tantra and Trika at it's finest
But it depends on what you mean by the term 'tantric' - if by that term
you mean someone who practices ritualized magical group coitus, or
left-handed basket weaving, our Guru Dev probably was not such a
tantric. Guru Dev may or may not have possessed a Sri Chakra, as
reported by Swami Rama of the Himalayas, but from all reports, our Guru
Deva was a Siddha Yogi from Ayodhya, whose original name was Rajaram
Mishra. According to my sources, Guru Dev was a nominal member of his
family sect, the Ramanandis of Ayodyha.
TM and the Eighty-four Mahasiddas
The TM mantras probably originated with the so-called Eighty-four
Mahasiddas, the Nath alchemists of medieval India. The Sri Vidya cult
came much later, following the Gupta age and the age of the sects -
Shaivaism, Vaisnavism, Shaktism in the 12th century and Bhakti after
Chaitanya, in the 15th century. In my opinion, Guru Dev was following
the Nath Siddha path, as well as the path of the Sri Vidya. Guru Dev
was a Shakta Tantrist who practiced Hatha Yoga and was a expert in the
Adwaita scriptures.
However, I could be wrong, but porbably not.
It is a fact that all the Shankaracharyas agree that the Saraswati
Dasanamis worship the Sri Vidya. It is also a fact that the Sri Chakra
is ensconced on the mandir at Dwarka, Kanchi, and the Sringeri Mathas.
It is also a fact that all the Adwaita Sannyasins claim that Adi
Shankara established four mathas as seats of learning and for the
worship of Sri Vidya.
Not just another Tantric sect
According to the Shankaracharya of Sringeri, the Adi Shankara placed
the Sri Chakra, symbol of Tripurasundari, with the TM mantras inscribed
thereon, at each of the seats of learning - Dwarka, Puri, Sringeri,
Kanchi and at Jyotirmath. The mantras of TM are DIRECTLY related to Sri
Vidya. At least three TM bija mantras appear inscribed on the Sri
Chakra!
Titles of interest:
"Tantra in Practice"
ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Princeton university Press, 2000
"The Alchemical Body"
by David Gordon White
University of Chicago Press, 1996
"Auspicious Wisdom"
by Douglas Renfrew Brooks
State university of New York Press 1992
Other References:
Tibetan and Sanskrit translations of Indian sources on the lives of the
Mahasiddhas; such as Abhyabhatta's work and those of Buddhaguptanatha.
Second, Tibetan traditions about the lives of the Mahasiddhas.
Indic manuscripts with isolated stanzas of vernacular Mahasiddha songs
in them. Some of these songs are called "diamond songs" and some are
isolated dohas as in the case of the dohas of Saraha in the
Hevajratrantra. A doha is a rhyming couplet akin to a haiku and
contained bija mantras.
A single Indic manuscript of caryapada songs in old Brahmi and a
Sanskrit and a Tibetan commentary on this text. The name of this
language varies according to scholars and is also spoken of sometimes
as Old Hindi, or Old Bengali. The term caryapada means songs of action,
such as the "Queen dohas" attributed to Saraha which is extant only in
Tibetan.
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