devotion vs. knowledge

[Michael Cohen]

If I may, a general question addressed to the forum:

When seeking to locate authority concerning the precepts of advaita, to whom
should appeal ultimately be directed? If we seek to understand the
relationship between jnana and bhakti, it seems scriptural sources are the
resort of choice. If we seek interpretation of the scriptures relating to
advaita, is not Samkara the voice accepted as most authoritative by virtue of
sampradaya or the succession of teaching lineage?

If this line of reasoning is accepted, then surely quoting Ramakrishna or
Ramana, brilliant as they may be, has to given a subordinate reference behind
the Upanishads and Samkara otherwise, it seems to me, we run the risk of
sectarianism and sacrifice of the philosophic integrity of advaita (a charge
frequently leveled by scholars against "neo-vedantists").

-Michael C.