ShrIrAma instructs tArA -2 (conclusion)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 17 Apr 1998, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> The main reason I am replying to this mail is your comment about
> bhAskararAya. He was _NOT_ a proponent of vaidika tantra. He has
> defended vAmAchAra in his works.

He may not have been a vaidika tantrik but he was a Vaidika and a
tantrika.  :-)  He was a Rgvedin agnihotri who performed many yagnas. In
those works of his which I've read so far, saubhagyabhaskara and guptavati
on the chandi patha, he makes no reference to vamachara and salutes
Shankaracharya as the best of teachers.  (And from the digvijayas we know
that Shankaracharya did not approve of vamachara.)  Yet I have also read
that Shri Bhaskararaya defends this.  The author of the Durgakalpadruma
thinks that by vamachara Shri Bhskararaya just meant those upasanas which
are performed for svartha instead of paramartha.   Which would be bad but
not so bad.  But I haven't been able to check up on this.

The edition of Saubhagyabhaskara I have is from Sampurnananda Sanskrit
Vishvavidyalaya in Kashi.  They are going to publish all of Shri
Bhaskararayas works and I intend to purchase them as I do.  It will be
interesting to see if his more original philosophical works shed ligh on
this issue.

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