[Advaita-l] Sringeri and Kanchi - same incident?

[Ravishankar Venkatraman]

Similar to the sentiments expressed by Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian on 
whether to write a mail or not, I also thought multiple times before writing 
this.

It is not good for people to indulge on what was quoted to have been said by 
someone decades ago, or an ardent devotee of 'X' matha observed so and so, 
and hence the views of the Acharyas are reflected in what 'X' said. It 
hinders the spiritual progress of the individual and it hurts the feelings 
of other devotees. In the bargain, it hurts the spiritual progress of the 
other devotees also.

Here is the situation in 2006. Sri Bharati Tirtha Mahaswamigal, the current 
Sankaracharya of Sringeri mutt observes as thus:

Quote

Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi was a great Tapasvi and guiding light for 
millions. He was a learned scholar, well-versed in the shastras and an 
embodiment of compassion.

Unquote

This is from a pdf document "Mahaswami of Kanchi Sage Extraordinary" which 
came to me by mail a few months ago. I am sure this is available in the web 
somewhere.

I am sure that when the current Acharya of Sringeri, who Himself is a 
tapasvi makes this statement, it behooves all the sishyas to follow Him and 
not challenge Him with some age-old claim.

Our duty first is to remain as good sishyas to the respective Acharyas, and 
follow what He teaches.

I pray that the supreme Lord should give us each of us what we want in 
spiritual pursuits, and wean us away from things like this which are 
absolutely of no worth.

God bless,

Ravi





>From: "Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian" <rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta 
><advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
>To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" 
><advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
>Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Sringeri and Kanchi - same incident?
>Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 13:11:25 -0700
>
>[I have been wondering whether to write this mail, and actually
>discarded it the first time, but anyway here goes]
>
>I looked at the link below. It was interesting and well written. But
>then Mr Ra Ganapati is a professional writer. But the writer is either
>unaware or forgets to mention that when the then kuDali Acharya
>visited Madras in the 30s, the same Sri Candrashekharendra Sarasvati
>Swamigal himself commented in gatherings that the kuDali Acarya was
>the real Sringeri Acharya. This angered the devotees of the Sringeri
>Mutt greatly. But Sri Candrashekhara Bharati Swamigal did not even
>bother to respond, which only shows his greatness and detatchment.
>
>Now this kuDali swami was such an ardent advaitin that he had lost all
>sense of duality. So much so that he thought that the printing press
>in his maTha was the same as the printing press in the government mint
>:-). He was implicated in a forgery scandal and later committed
>suicide. Consequently, the kuDali-is-the-real-Sringeri story died for
>a while. But wait, it resurfaces in the 1970s in Dr Veezhinathan
>thesis on the so-called Anantaanadagiri Sankara Vijayam, where Sankara
>established a maTha "Sringeri samiipe". Note this is like saying that
>the California Governor resides near Los Angeles, whereas quite
>clearly any tolerably reasonable man would just say that he resides in
>Sacramento. Of course Dr Veezhinathan has received (and still
>receives) lots of honors and grants from the Kanchi Matha. But wait,
>the story doesn't even end there. Even in the latest web-site
>www.kanchi-sathya.org, there is a statement from the current kuDali
>Swami, and he is quoted by the web-master as the kuDali-Sringeri
>Sankaracarya. A perfect example of the adage "the more things change,
>the more they stay the same".
>
>We can focus on commonalities, but also cannot sweep major differences
>under the carpet. Ignorance can be blissful, but only for a short
>while. Just my $0.02.
>
>Rama
>
>On 6/17/06, jagannathan mahadevan <jagannathan.mahadevan at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>There are other statements in the Kanchi website that reflect more
>>positive notes in terms of identifying similarities. Please see link
>>below.
>>
>>http://www.kamakoti.org/souv/5-59.html
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