Let's stir up some more random shit that has nothing to do with this thread:
n9newunsixx... came across this in some reading the other day,
Shri Atmananda Krishna Menon was asked why Bhaktas dislike Advaita and he replied
"Strictly speaking they are also seeking advaita. But they do not know what they are doing. They want enjoyment and do not want to give it up. They are afraid that they will lose their enjoyment in actual advaita. But when they are made to understand that the happiness, which they assume they enjoy, is but an expression of the real 'I'-principle (advaita), the bhakta becomes an advaitin and realizes the truth. So the real 'I'-principle is the expressed and the happiness aspect a mere expresson.
Lord Krishna is the happiness in the vision of the Lord. If you admit that you want that happiness in all three states, without a break, it is only that principle that is persistently present in all three states that can provide it. There is only one such principle, and that is the real 'I'-principle, and it's real nature is pure happiness. Therefore get beyond the name and form of the Lord and you are in advaita."
Your thoughts...
"Strictly speaking they are also seeking advaita."
Strictly speaking, Atmananda is also seeking dvaita.
"But they do not know what they are doing."
But he does not know what he is doing.
"They want enjoyment and do not want to give it up."
Atmananda wants enjoyment, but he has given up. Out of frustration, he pretends like all enjoyment is inferior to his monist/impersonalist understanding, and thus mistakenly regards the bhakta's pursuit as dwelling on the mundane platform. Atmananda doesn't realize that the bhakta's pursuit isn't actually for enjoyment, per se. Rather, the bhakta's pursuit has the natural consequence of enjoyment. The non-bhakti advaitist, on the other hand, is very much seeking an alleviation from suffering, which is nothing more than the other side of the coin of seeking enjoyment. Consequently, Atmananda isn't aiming for something transcendental so much as he is aiming for the lack of something he perceives as mundane.
"They are afraid that they will lose their enjoyment in actual advaita."
Atmananda is afraid that he will gain suffering in actual dvaita.
"But when they are made to understand that the happiness, which they assume they enjoy, is but an expression of the real 'I'-principle (advaita), the bhakta becomes an advaitin and realizes the truth. So the real 'I'-principle is the expressed and the happiness aspect a mere expresson."
But when Atmananda is made to understand that the suffering, which he assumes he must make a direct endeavor to avoid, is but an expression of the real 'word-jugglery'-principle (advaita), and granting that he comes into contact with a devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, he becomes a bhakta and realizes the truth.
"Lord Krishna is the happiness in the vision of the Lord."
Dwelling on the absolute platform, Krishna, His vision and His happiness are non-different. Notice how as soon as one brings up Krishna, the advaitist (i.e. monist) wants to start qualifying distinctions between the Lord and "visions of the Lord."
"If you admit that you want that happiness in all three states, without a break, it is only that principle that is persistently present in all three states that can provide it. There is only one such principle, and that is the real 'I'-principle, and it's real nature is pure happiness."
If Atmananda admits that the real "I-principle," whose real nature is pure happiness, entails an individual in spontaneous, transcendental love for Krishna, then he can drop the meaningless word-jugglery and join the bhakta in the real Sanatana Dharma.
"Therefore get beyond the name and form of the Lord and you are in advaita."
Here he goes again violating his monism to try and hide his broken philosophy by manufacturing convenient distinctions between the absolute name/form of God and God Himself.