Who Is A Hindu

[Sunder]

<!--QuoteBegin-Carl+Jun 13 2005, 03:26 PM-->QUOTE(Carl @ Jun 13 2005, 03:26 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> As I pointed out, even in the BG, Krishna points to Vaikuntha AFTER describing brahmajyoti, i.e., He points to this Vaikuntha as being transcendent even to brahman. Even more significantly, He says that while Impersonal Brahman-realization is NOT eternal, atttaining to Vaikuntha is eternal, never to return. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is new to me. Which shlokas of the BG talk about Vaikunta?

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->By all accounts, this is a fascinating assertion made in various Vedic texts. This <i>transcendental variegatedness</i> is emphasized, but at the same time it is referred to as guna-rahita, nis-trai-gunya, nirguna.
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The three terms above, specially NIR-Guna sounds more like absence of gunas. Like Niraakara, nirmala, nirvikalpa, nishprapancha, neeraga, nishkriya, nishkalanka etc. To my understanding how is nirguna to be taken only as lack of rajo-thamo gunas, and not as lack of all three gunas - specially when there is mention of nis-trai-guna? I would love to hear more about this please.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->When Ramanuja, a great lover of Sankara, wanted to bring more of Vedanta into the light of popular undertanding ...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I did not know Ramanujacharya had great love for Shankaracharya. This again is interesting and new to me. Could you please lead me to sources that would confirm the same?

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Don't just stop with Vishisht-advaita or Madhva's Dwaita. They are self-admittedly incomplete (especially in the case of Madhvacharya).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I seem to be learning a lot here. This too is new to me. Could you please again let us know how (or more accurately why) the acharyas themselves admitted that their views were incomplete? How did this incompleteness turn into perfrection with the advent of Sri Chaitanya?

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In a previous post you used the word "illusion" rather loosely, but could you now define it ...<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How is illusion defined according to Vaishnavism?

Looking forward to hearing from you. I will maintain thooshni till then <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->