|
|
|
|
|
|
|
tions through a Textual narration of them. Advaita strives mightily and succeeds, I suggest, in narrowing to certain, specific textual avenues the way of access to its truth, while yet announcing that truth vigorously. In defending its positions, Advaita precludes access to these positions from any neutral position that might appear independent of the claims of the Vedic world on those who would investigate it. The truth is available, yet only within the confines of a demanding Text and consequent upon engagement in it. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
When the Advaitin writes that Brahman is devoid of qualities, that the identity of the human person is Brahman, and that these claims are those which are most consonant with the way the world really is, these are indeed claims which, though not easily accessible to all, cannot be dismissed as merely local, merely textual strategies. But they are articulated in and from sacred texts as understood by a believing community; those who have access to these texts have access to a truth which comes to the fore after the Text but not apart from it. Though not open to immediate judgment because they bear with them an elaborate set of rules about their reception and use, neither can they be taken as elusive or as so imbedded in detail that judgment becomes impossible; the claims are true, and the right persons, rightly educated, will be able to judge them so. "Outsiders" are such because of various obstacles between them and the Text; they remain prone to read it the wrong way, and so to think incorrectly. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Almost all contemporary readers are, of course, outsiders. Yet it is precisely here, on the margins of the Text, and not in speculation about the rational claims of Advaita or in a search for the experience to which it points, that a point of access appears. Though demanding, the Text is a teacher. It instructs the interested inquirer in the skills of approach to Brahman; it encourages the reader's engagement in it, and if properly learned, it guides the reader to a truth which can be cognized after it. The more we read, the more we become insiders. The truth of Advaita is as near as the Text itself. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As near as the Text itselfi.e., in the approved school, in the approved teacher's mouth, received by the approved stu- |
|
|
|
|
|