Share, don't be fooled by Wiki-Willy.
Willy is quite the name dropping amateur but he didn't bother to tell you that the real identity of Swami Agehananda Bharati was actually the Viennese academic - Leopold Fischer. Fischer was a polyglot and teacher, a Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. He was a Sanskritist but in India that only gets you halfway. Consequently, when he wanted to do fieldwork in India he needed better Indian credentials. Therefore, he went to India and got initiated into one of Shankara's dashanami monastic orders - that is why he had this swami name. What Willy isn't telling you (because he doesn't know) is that in India, no one with real knowledge will talk with you about the important stuff unless you are a sannyasin. They just don't think you can be serious and focused enough to listen, comprehend and absorb it properly. Leopold-Agehananda was particularly interested in buddhist and hindu tantic traditions, so he researched and wrote about them. In his works he was just as willing as any other academic to speculate about historical origins and he did so in the common fashion. Although technically a "swami", he didn't like orthodox Hindu traditions much. He loved to call Ramana Maharshi a "crashing bore" - to the vast delight of tantric buddhist Chogyam Trungpa and his 1970's hipster sycophants. Willy's conclusions that bija-mantras originated from the Buddhist Vijñanvada lineages is nothing but erroneous tripe. I don't know any scholar who would hold such a silly view. This is why Willy is often called "Wiki-Willy" by those who actually know this stuff but get tired of his back-pocket ego polishing. Many of his conclusions are downright amateurish because he reads this stuff and then launches his repetitive rants. Apparently, he thinks it gives him "stature" and thus lets him attempt to "lord it over" the less informed about a given topic. This is the shared evaluation by Bharitu, Vaj and me - who all have experiential knowledge about these topics. We may argue about other things but we all concur about Willy. So don't be fooled. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@...> wrote: > > Thanks, Richard, great info. Letting it percolate on back burners of share brain. Off to Dome... > > > > ________________________________ > From: Richard J. Williams richard@... > To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2012 8:18 PM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Fairfield Life is so much fun - Part 2 > > >  > > > Share Long: > > I guess it's all about mantras LOL > > > LoL!!! > > 'Bija' mantras have no semantic meaning; 'mantras' > are words used in the Vedic rituals. You can do > japa with bijas, but you'd need to know Sanskrit > in order to chant the mantras in the Vedas. > > According to Brooks, the bijas are superior, just > like yoga is superior to ritual acts. > > Why do you think the cow is now sacred in India? > > According to Swami Ageananda Bharati, it is clear > that the Buddhist tantras preceeded the Hindu > tantras, and hence, yogic practices are tantric > in nature, e.g. the non-Vedic practices such as > yoga, mudra, dhyana, mantra, yantra, dharani, puja, > pradakshina; and monasticism, ahimsa, instruction > by sutra, relic worship, edifice architecture, > etc., etc. > > Yogic practices and thus yogins, and yogic practice, > is firmly rooted in the teachings of Shakya and > the Sramanas such as Natatputra. > > Read more: > > 'Mantra Yoga' > http://tinyurl.com/c87rs5z > > "The srividya, because it consists of "indestructible > seed" syllables (bijaksara) rather than words, > transcends such "mundane" considerations as semantic > meaning. Accordingly, a bija-only mantra is not > merely esoteric but inherently superior. > > Because it is purely seed-syllables [bijasaras] is > the purest form of mantra. It does not make a request > or praise god, it is God's purest expression. Gayatri > is great but it cannot match srividya because it is > still in language; it is Veda and mantra but when > transformed into the srividya its greatness > increases" (95). > > Work cited: > > "Auspicious Wisdon" > The texts and traditions of Srividya Sakta Tantrism > in South India. > by Douglas Renfrew Brooks > SUNY, 1992 >
