[Advaita-l] RE: Sankaracharya

[Ravishankar Venkatraman]

I said that I would not discuss this topic, but I would like to mention a 
couple of things here, not to promote more arguments.

>
>>Even Kanchi Paramacharya has described the beauty of Madaviya Sankara
>>Vijayam in his lectures, which were later translated and printed in the 
>>book
>>"Adi Sankara: His Life and Times". His Holiness did not get into the moot
>>subject of whether the book was written by Swami Vidyaranya or not.
>
I do not know where you are reading from. I have His Holiness lectures in 
Tamil. I still do think that H.H. observed that Madaviya Sankara Vijayam was 
a beautiful piece of work. My understanding is that these were the lectures 
which were translated into English.
>
>Indeed, the legends and narratives given in the Gururatnamalika and Sushama 
>have been critically analyzed by many different people. It

Let me know what has not been critically analyzed to promote this 
controversy. Each statement by the followers of both the mutts, have been 
CAREFULLY TWISTED to find evidence against the argument. Welcome to the 
tradition of Maya...

>
>Moreover, please note that Sadasiva Brahmendra's time is somewhere in the 
>period 1700-1725, which is about 300 years ago, not 400. This

I do not want to start another controversy here. What is believed about Sri. 
Sadasiva Brahmendra is that he lived for many centuries. That was one of the 
reasons he is still the biggest mystic of His times as well as our times. 
There is a lot of legend about His personality spanning many centuries. I 
believe (will verify and post later) that this is mentioned in the book "The 
Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda also.

There are similar people (Akkalkot Maharaj for example) who are/were 
supposed to have lived for several centuries, but their life story would not 
be scrutinized here or elsewhere, for known reasons.

>>As an aside while talking about tradition, several western authors 
>>including
>>Janathan Bader, date the book to a much later period, and hence do not
>>attribute to Swami Vidyaranya.
>
>The said Western authors all follow the lead of one W. R. Antarkar of 
>Bombay, who has written a few papers on the subject of Sankaravijaya texts. 
>This is a typical case of repeated citation of one man's opinion gaining 
>the status of a reasoned conclusion, as if

I never argued for or against this. Mine was a simple statement.

>>Sri. Adi Sankara, the second one Swami Vidyaranya, and the third being 
>>Sri.
>>Appayya Dikshita.
>
>Then this text cannot be too old, can it, contrary to its designation as an 
>itihAsa? Appaya Dikshita lived about 500 years ago ...
>
Well, it does not discuss Appayya Dikshita's life in detail. I think it was 
more of a prophecy than his life story. Kalki Avatar has not happened yet, 
we have the mention of where Kalki will be born, and what He will achieve in 
puranas. The complete life of Sri. Appaya Dikshita comes from different 
sources, not from Siva Rahasyam.


>
>>The primary problem in accepting this is mainly from the dates given for 
>>the
>>start of Kumbakonam mutt. It is easy to see that a lineage existed in
>
>Nobody, to my knowledge, has given a concrete date for this.

When people seem to have evidence to prove Sri. Bhagavadpada lived 1200 
years ago, they do not have the exact date for an event which happened 200 
years ago.

I do not understand what is preventing people from verifying concrete 
material evidence as opposed to arguing about who wrote what text, and 
whether it is really original etc. No wonder this controversy thrives, and 
it will continue to do so.  There seems to be a problem here when people do 
not want to do this. I know that my observation will not matter...

>
>By the way, the traditional authority for deriving the Kumbhakonam lineage 
>from the Sringeri one is the fact that all the heads at Kumbhakonam and 
>later at Kanchipuram have been Sarasvati-s. It is

I do not want us to get into perpetual arguments. Anybody can believe in 
anything, that is the beauty of tradition and faith. A standing example of 
this is the RamJanmabhoomi Babri Masjid issue.

God Bless,
Ravi

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