[Advaita-l] Fwd: Rama and Krishna are Jiva-s - Mahabharata

[Kalyan]

Namaste Sri Praveenji

//Well, thats interesting. You objected to Rama and Krishna being called as a jIva ​by some quotations.//

Because the Mahabharata does not give scope for such an interpretation. The central theme of Mbh is that when dharma declines, Ishwara himself descends to earth to restore order. In Mbh, this Ishwara is Krishna. Shankara also gives a similar summary in his intro to gita bhashya.

//Unless you agree that Shiva
 being called as a jIva by anyone//

The Mahabharata does not give scope for Shiva is jIva interpretation either. Having said that, Shiva's role in the central story of Mbh is minor.

//​​They are a few
 steps ahead of dvaitins in this area perhaps, since
 Purandara Dasa prays to Shiva for a tailadhAravat manas in
 harI, which is hopefully the means to their
 mokSha. //

Vaishnavas might pray to Shiva. But I am pretty confident that Vishnu alone is the moksha giver for them.

//On a related
 matter, I do not know as to why those who call themselves as
 Vedantins following, Advaita Vedanta take to a non-Vedanta
 source as having more authority in their
 doctrine.//

Not sure what you are trying to say here.

Regards
Kalyan

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 5/24/17, Praveen R. Bhat <bhatpraveen at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Fwd: Rama and Krishna are Jiva-s - Mahabharata
 To: "Kalyan" <kalyan_kg at yahoo.com>
 Cc: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>, "Venkata sriram P" <venkatasriramp at yahoo.in>
 Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 3:28 PM
 
 Namaste
 Kalyanji,
 On Wed, May 24, 2017 at
 8:24 PM, Kalyan <kalyan_kg at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 I dont believe in the
 Vishnu vs Shiva debate but I am confident of one thing.
 Well, thats
 interesting. You objected to Rama and Krishna being called
 as a jIva ​by some quotations. Unless you agree that Shiva
 being called as a jIva by anyone is equally objectionable,
 you partially believe in the
 debate. Vaishnavaites do not
 believe Shiva can give moksha.​​They are a few
 steps ahead of dvaitins in this area perhaps, since
 Purandara Dasa prays to Shiva for a tailadhAravat manas in
 harI, which is hopefully the means to their
 mokSha. So one can argue
 similarly that vaishnavas are criticizing Shaivism for
 doctrinal reasons alone.
 
 
 ​That very
 doctrine has been proven to be wrong by ​Appayya Dikshita
 saying that the reasons for which Shiva is set aside as a
 jIva applied to Rama or Krishna also.
 On a related
 matter, I do not know as to why those who call themselves as
 Vedantins following, Advaita Vedanta take to a non-Vedanta
 source as having more authority in their
 doctrine.
 ​gurupAdukAbhyAm,
 --Praveen R.
 Bhat
 /* येनेदं
 सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन
 विजानीयात्। Through what
 should one know That owing to which all this is known!
 [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
 ​