[Advaita-l] NOTES ON MANDUKYA UPANISHAD AND KARIKA: INTRODUCTION 6

[Shrisha Rao]

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> On 6/27/06, Shrisha Rao <shrao at nyx.net> wrote:

>> I am not aware of any classical scholar who suggests `brahmavAda' as an
>> appropriate term in place of `mAyAvAda', and such a suggestion is also in
>> apparent conflict with established non-parochial uses of the former term,
>> e.g., in Bhagavad Gita XVII-24.

> In the modern world, it was Hacker who pointed out that maayaa-vaada is 
> not a very suitable term for describing shankara's philosophy. See 
> "Philology and Confrontation", published by the SUNY Press.

Thanks for the reference.  However, without having seen it, I would only 
remark that the established meanings of such appellations do change over 
time; e.g., when Sankara himself refers to `dvaitinaH' he always seems to 
mean the Sankhya adherents.  In that sense, though he rejects the Sankhya 
positions in many places in his BSB (starting with discussion of prakR^iti 
under `IxaternAshabdam'), it does not appear that he would accept his own 
position as a logical negation, or even see himself as the only opponent, 
of what he calls `dvaitinaH'.  As such, with apologies to Mr. Hacker, 
perhaps `Advaita' is not significantly better in this regard.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

> Rama