Avatars

[Malolan Cadambi]

On Thu, 17 Jan 2002 00:29:25 -0500 shri jaldhar vyas wrote:

>Oddly enough it is certain Vaishnavas who are particularly insistent on
>this avatarahood of Shankaracharya.  They claim his life and philosophy
>was all a trick to confuse the nastikas and "good" people were never
>supposed to have believed in Advaita Vedanta.  Or he was only supposed to
>teach  the tamasika people who were too stupid to take up Vaishnavism.  It
>is sad to see such personal attacks instead of measured criticism of
>ideas.  The type of people who indulge in such things are surprised when I
>tell the the divinity or otherwise of Shankaracharya are totally
>irrelevant to our belief and practice of Advaita Vedanta.  It's truth
>comes not being founded by any God or Guru but from its' being firmly
>based in the Vedas which are apaurusheya.  Shankaracharya is the greatest
>exponent of Advaita Vedanta yes, but the parampara was already old before
>him.  Even if someday it were proved he never existed, it would make no
>difference to the truths of Adaita Vedanta.

Please note that not all vaishnavas share the same ideology. The views of
Gaudiya Vaishnavas and that of Sri Vaishavas differ a lot, they both are
not the same kittens in the litter. If you are refering to ISKCON's prabhu-
pada who always goes about telling "mayavada et all......" you are not
refering to all Vaishnavas per se. Speaking purely logically, Vaishanavas
cannot be defined by Narasimha Mehta's song. Although his song represents
perhaps one of the few qualities of needed for not only vaishanavas bu
aastikaas also.

>The type of people who indulge in such things are surprised when I
>tell the the divinity or otherwise of Shankaracharya are totally
>irrelevant to our belief and practice of Advaita Vedanta.

This was not the purpose of my post. My post was purely meant to
philosophically understand how Adi Shankara classifys the avataras and his
views on Pradyumna, Sankarshana and the vyuha theory. I never intended to
discuss on itihiiya.

Regards,

Malolan Cadambi