Antiquity of advaita vedanta (was : an open letter to all)

[nanda chandran]

>It does not make sense to implicitly suspect Shankara of misinterpreting
>(or even distorting) the salutation in the first verse as being that to
>nArAyaNa, instead of the Buddha. Shankara clearly says the salutation
>is to nArAyaNa. For a second opinion, we can listen to what VidvAn
>Lakshmipuram Srinivasacharya, a shrIvaiShNava, is said to have written
>in his book darshanodaya:
>
>tathaiva teShAM bhagavatpAdAnAM paramAchAryo .api ityatra AnandagirIyaM
>vachanamudAharAmaH | mANDUkyakArikAyAm-alAtashAntiprakaraNAraMbhe
>AchAryo hi purA badarikAshrame nara-nArAyaNAdhishhThite nArAyaNaM
>bhagavantamabhipretya tapo mahadatapyata| tato bhagavAnatiprasannaH
>tasmai vidyAM pradAditi prasiddhaM paramagurutva parameshvare iti
>bhAvaH |

Anand, I've to hand it to you for getting the most irrelevant support for
your theories.

Incase the readers have missed it, the only objective of the Vaishnava is
but to imply that GaudapAda and Shankara only taught the bhakti path -
"NArAyana bestowing brahma vidhya to GaudapAda!". By this the Vaishnava is
totally undermining the jnAna and Advaita tradition which swears by the
attainment of liberation by knowledge alone.

The greatest exponent of Advaita - ShankarAchArya - himself says that when
he himself is the reality, whom is he to worship? JnAna and karma (which
includes bhakti) are diametrically opposed and to endorse bhakti at a
higher level in Advaita, is more harmful than it being prachanna bauddham,
which atleast always taught that reality can be attained only by knowledge.

Regarding Anandagiri :
Incase you're not aware, Anandagiri, is not a "reliable" author according to
some sources. Else Shankara would've been a Tamil Brahmin and the matham at
KAnchi would've been the original matham.


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