[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita Vedanta and Krishnashtkam

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005, Krunal Makwana wrote:

> I was recently reciting the Krishnashtakam composed by our Beloved JagatGuru, 
> and the last verse confused me, when Bhagavatpad say's :
>
> yadA tadA yathA tathA tathaiva kRishhNasatkathA
> mayA sadaiva gIyatAM tathA kRipA vidhIyatAmh
> pramANikAshhTakadvayaM japatyadhItya yaH pumAna
> bhavetsa nandanandane bhave bhave subhaktimAna
>
> O Lord Krishna! Please bless me so that I may sing your
> glories and pastimes, regardless of the position I am in
> **Anyone who studies or recites these two authoritative ashtakas**
> will be blessed with devotion to Krishna in every rebirth
>
> Which other ashtaka is Pujya Acharya refering to? as Bhagavatpad refers to 
> TWO ashtakas.
>

The complete works of Shankaracharya originally published by Vani Vilasa 
Press and since republished by Samata books (http://www.samatabooks.com/) 
includes a krishnashtakam which begins shrIyAshliShTo viShNuH ... but not 
this one which begins bhaje vrajaikamaNDanaM ...

However I have seen the latter ascribed to Shankaracharya in other places. 
For instance brhatstotraratnakara,  a collection of stotras published in 
Kashi in 1964, includes both.  So perhaps Shankaracharya did write two 
ashtakas to Krshna Bhagavan.

Also it is interesting to note there is another composition by 
Shankaracharya called achyutAShTakam which starts with the famous shloka 
achyutaM keshavaM rAmanArAyaNaM ... which we recite at the end of every 
chapter of e.g. satyanarayana katha

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>