Article: A vedanta toolkit part 2

[Subhanu Saxena]

On 15th September Vidyashankar wrote:


> Could you give the exact reference in Mandana Misra's
> work? I presume it is from the brahmasiddhi, or from the vibhrama
> viveka.
> It seems to indicate that the quote about adhyAropa and apavAda was
> not
> from the tradition which Mandana himself came from. This throws an
> interesting perspective on the legendary account of the debate between
> Sankara and Mandana.
>
>
>
>
It is indeed from Brahma Siddhi, although I do not have at hand the
direct reference. You are right to speculate that, from the quote, it
appears MaNDana did not appreciate the value of the method, and the tone
of the verse is as if "it is part of another tradition to which I do not
belong".  For full details, the only comprehensive source text I can
recommend for a more detailed analysis is Vedanta Prakriya Pratyabhijna,
as I have mentioned in earlier posts (as well as the english translation
by AJ Alston).  There is also an interesting discussion in the book as
to MaNDana's true identity (The conclusion being that it is unlikely he
was Sureshwara, as their points of view differ greatly even though they
refute in similar styles the views of Bhartprapancha)

Just to amplify what I had previously said,be warned that this book
approaches 1000 pages in the English translation, but has a systematic
description of the key points of a number of ancient advaita
commentators, plus a comparison with Shankara's method.  For those who
would like a simpler intro, the separately published English
Introduction, "how to recognise the method of Vedanta" is an excellent
starting point (the MaNDana quote is given in here).

Maybe its my imagination, but I received Vidyashankar's email at 11:30am
Moscow time.  If, as per your email address, you are in Caltech, that
would make the time for you past midnight. I had always been led to
believe there were more exciting things to do in California at 1 in the
morning than study Vedanta!!!!!!


Regards

Subhanu