Concept of personal God and Advaita

[K Anand]

Well...what I can make out from your mail is that you are under ther
influence of ISCKON. But your mention of Kanchi Paramacharya offers some
hope. If you are a Smartha (or a follower of Sankara Sampradaya) you better
steer clear from Isckonite ideas as they are directly against Advaita and
reading and listening to their ideas leads to such a kind of zealous
poisoning of mind especially for a novice seeker that it will be hard to
correct.
Read Parmacharya's works. Deivathin Kural if you know Tamil. 7 volumes are
avialable. Read them all.
PS  : Please dont use Sripad for our Adi Shankara !!!
Best wishes
Anand K
----- Original Message -----
From: Venkataramani K. <venkataramanik at AOL.COM>
To: <ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2002 11:21 PM
Subject: Concept of personal God and Advaita


> Dear members,
>
> At least 2 of the Upanisads that I have read, Isa and Svetasvatara,
> describe the ultimate Supreme as a personal God. Also, Srimad Bhagavatam
> describes the Supreme as a person. On the other hand, Advaita vedanta
> considers Nirguna Brahman as Supreme and the concept of form has any
> relevance only so far as the structural world is considered, that is only
> as Saguna Brahman. Even that seems to manifest due to maya.
>
> How does Sripad Adi Sankara deal with the above 2 upanisads and SB? In
> general, how does the advaita vedanta school reconcile with the concept of
> personal form as highlighted as Supreme in these works? I have seen in
some
> writings of Kanchi Paramacarya where he quotes from SB. What is the
> position accorded to SB by advaita school? Is it considered on par with
> shrutis as is done by some vaishnava schools, especially Gaudiya
> vaishnavas? Or is it considered only as a path to realizing the Brahman?
>
> Please note that I am a beginner so far as knowledge goes. Please feel
free
> to correct me, if my understanding in the above paragraphs have been
faulty.
>
> Thank you and regards,
> K.Venkataramani
>