Rajyotsava is just like any other holiday. a day of rest or time of recuperation with friends, family, alcohol.

All we sit & do is just talk no kannadigas here, no kannada speaking people around. Language is to break the barrier & not to build. By just watching a kannada movie you cant claim to be a kannadiga!

Know the heritage of your state. Preserve,protect & educate others. Feel the need of change in oneself to change the vicinity!

“Kannada Ulisi..”

Thankyou for your valuable suggestion and knowledge. It’ll definitely help me in my search!

Cheers,
Harsha

Your question is quite valid. Since God is not a matter for mere reasoning, the sampradaya that ensures one of finding God is also not a purely reason-based one. God is ateendriya, super-sensuous. Only that which is within the sensory range can be subjected to mere reasoning. Not God. The method of the Upanishads is: First believe, my Child, and proceed. You have ample room for reasoning. But this is done on the foundation of Scripture. Reason has to be subservient to, supportive of, grow from, scripture. Any sampradaya that bases itself on Scripture, Veda, is sure to take one to God.

Subscribe to that sampradaya that you believe has shown God to seekers and which is still alive and can guide one to that goal. Again, reason has ample scope here too in choosing the sampradaya. But before looking elsewhere for a path, examine the one naturally given to you. God has a purpose in placing you in that system. Question the elders, the Acharyas, in that system. Do this in the prescribed manner. They will certainly help you find the answers.

Best wishes,
adbhutam

Thankyou again for the views. I completely agree with you for the fact that Sampradaya is not “empty” concept. It is indeed something very special to the mankind. It teaches us how to lead life. It is the reason for all the judgements we make in life. But nevertheless, we cannot say it is not man made. Though Sampradaya is something great, it is still made by man.

As I already mentioned, I am not trying to judge anything here but trying to find answers for my own questions. So I am not for or against anything.

I have just one question in reply to your explanation. You say ” When one consciously submits oneself to such a system, one is ensured of the lofty goal of Self-Knowledge.” But when I try to reason, cant a person from some other sampradaya find god?? I am sure this is not the case. Then why different sampradayas? And why should one blindly follow something? Is there any logical reasoning? No, it just depends on the intensity of your belief. Then how can we give the credit to Sampradaya? Instead we have to give it to our will power and self belief! And I believe at the end of the day even Sri Shankaracharya tried to tell this but most of it is now misinterpreted..

Cheers,
Harsha

Let me clarify: ‘Sampradaya’ is not an empty, man-made concept. Its meaning is very deep: sam-pradaaya means ’samyak pradaanam’. That is, handing down a whole system of Knowledge covering all aspects of questioning, the questioner, his preparations, the teaching, the Teacher, His traits, what he bases his teaching upon, etc. Sri Shankaracharya lays very great importance of the proper sampradaya.

If a person discovers he is already in or is exposed to a really authentic sampradaya, he is in safe hands. Human intellect, when not guided by a proper sampradaya will not get great results. What is worse, one can easily get into wrong paths and not realize the mistake until one has gone very far. And that could be disastrous.

When a sampradaya is carefully maintained and handed down from Guru to shishya, from parents to their offspring, what comes out of it is a very dependable system. One has enough scope within the sampradaya to question, examine, anything it offers. But the method of questioning has to be adhered to; which also the sampradaya provides for.

The Vedic sampradaya, nurtured and handed down by a Great Acharya Parampara is the greatest gift one gets from God. When one consciously submits oneself to such a system, one is ensured of the lofty goal of Self-Knowledge.

In case you wish to read and know about the Great Sampradaya that Acharya Shankara set into motion, having Himself got it from His Acharya parampara, you have several resources. One is: you can become a member in these discussion groups: advaitin is a yahoo discussion group with a large membership. You can ask questions, learn, dig into their archives for a lot of material on Shankara, Advaita, etc. advaita L is another group with a very good member-profile. This is also a great learning, discussion center.

You may read several of my blogs posted in WordPress under the name ‘adbhutam’.

There is not much I need to say on the topic; you may go ahead with the thought process.

Best wishes,
adbhutam

Thank you for your insightful and thought provoking comment on this article. But just for my understanding and to continue the process of self discovery, I will try to question some things which you have written.

Sampradaya :: When you speak about sampradaya, dont you think it is man made? Which means it is more of a culture than a ritual which guarantees you the knowledge about God. Yes we have seen in past that belief can do wonders and similarly for staunch believers of any sampradaya, they have got their own answers to these spiritual questions and they are satisfied in their own way. But at the end of the day is this the truth? Ofcourse, noone can answer such questions unless they experience it themselves and hence it would be foolish for me to expect you to answer this question for me. But then, questions/doubts and curiosities pop up in everyone’s mind and we all start searching for answers. Some lucky ones find their answers easily and some keep searching them. But I am sure these answers are completely specific to the person seeking it and would not resemble any other person’s answers…..

Apart from that just wanted to shred a small thought on what I have observed oflate. Dont you think this concept of “Man-Like” looking god to whom we surrender and always expect serendipitous outcome from him is leading this society into a lazy being? I understand that the real purpose is not that but dont you think this has been easily mis-interpreted and people have started expecting miracles more than believing in what they are potential of doing?

Awaiting another profound reply!

Cheers,
Harsha