A Question???

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Thu, 10 Apr 1997, Chelluri Nageswar Rao wrote:

>                                             Matrenamah
>
> Namaste Sri Vyas!
>
> Our homeland is considered as Matrubhumi.  Kanchi occupies Nabhisthanam.  Sri
> Shankara established Kamakoti at Nabhisthanam.  In puranas it is stated there
> is no punarjanma if one visits Kanchi.  I cant think of any better place to
> establish a peetam than kanchi where Sri Kamakshi, our mother chose to stay.


With all due respect, our motherland is filled with holy tIrthas and
peethams, and it is nearly impossible to describe one as any holier than
the others. Kanchipuram is also the place where Lord Vishnu liberated
Gajendra from the crocodile's mouth, and where Lord Brahma conducted a
yajna ages ago. But all this is besides the point.

Wouldn't you agree that Varanasi (if you die there, you have no
punarjanma), Prayag (if you bathe there, all your sins are washed away),
Nasik (another kumbha mela site), Ujjain, Kamakhya (Assam), Gangotri (the
source of the holy Ganga),  .... are all very good places, each better
than the rest, where Sankaracharya could have chosen to establish
monasteries? Where are they? Other than all these sites, how about the 51
(or 107) other Sakti peethams? Did Sankaracharya establish monasteries in
all these places?

One must distinguish between a Sakti peetham and a matha. A peetham is
where Goddess ambikA resides. A matha is where sannyAsis reside. Sometimes
a matha and a peetham can be in the same place, but it is not necessary
that it be so. There are countless mathas in villages that one would have
not even heard of, with presiding mathadhipatis. The real adhipati of a
peetham is always the Goddess. A mathadhipati is popularly referred to as
a peethadhipati, only by means of honorific extension.

Vidyasankar