[Advaita-l] The Advaitasiddhi of Madhusudan Saraswati

[Anand Hudli]

srikrishna_ghadiyaram at yahoo.com  wrote:
>Would someone clarify to me how many chapters comprise
>the original Advaita Siddhi and what are the topics.
>Are there are other published translations of Jha or
>other writers with other chapters ?

The advaitasiddhi has four parichchheda's or sections. The first deals with 
the matter of how and why the world of duality is unreal. The second deals 
with Brahman, the sole reality. The third describes shravana, manana, and 
nididhyAsana and their efficacy in achieving liberation. The last section 
deals with liberation itself.

It is a big book and the first section is by far the biggest among the four. 
Pt. Anantakrishna Sastri, in his edition of the advaitasiddhi along with the 
GauDabrahmAnandI and viTThaleshopAdyAya's commentaries, has divided the 
advaitasiddhi into 108 topics which are distributed among the four sections.

I have not seen a complete translation of the advaitasiddhi, which is why I 
am attempting it. I hope to complete it in this lifetime (!!) and get it 
reviewed by Sringeri scholars. The Sringeri Math has started bringing out a 
scholarly sanskrit commentary on the GauDaBrahmAnandI which itself is by far 
the most famous commentary on the advaitasiddhi. I recently got the first 
volume and am eagerly waiting for the next volume. During my last visit to 
Sringeri, I had a discussion with Shri Gowrishankar, the Administrator of 
the Math, regarding the Advaita Sarada Project at Sringeri. This project 
aims to provide electronic versions of manuscripts in advaita to interested 
people. There is so much work that needs to be done, but between studying 
advaita, practising Brahminhood and lengthy sessions of Yoga and meditation, 
and running a software company, I just can't find enough time. Besides, 
Bangalore is awfully crowded these days and fighting traffic is a fierce and 
long battle every day.

Anand