[Advaita-l] (no subject)

[S.N. Sastri]

A.Siddhartha Reddy wrote on 29 May 2006: "Shankara himself agrees that even
a hundred shruti statements
cannot make fire cold." Which work of Samkara records this?
  Also, while talking to a Vaishnava friend of mine, he was mentioning how
Narayana is a proper name and not a title because of the "second" na used at
the end  (in accordance with a grammatical rule of Panini). He also
mentioned that Appaya Dikshita gave up on establishing the Siva
Sarvottamatva because of this. Could someone provide more background on the
grammatical issues involved and the source for Appaya Dikshita's statement?
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The statement of Sankara appears in his bhAshya on Bhagavad GItA, 18.66. The
statement is: "Even a hundred Vedic statements cannot become valid if they
say that fire is cold or non-luminous. If a Vedic text says that fire is
cold or non-luminous, one should assume that the intended meaning of the
text is different, for otherwise its validity cannot be maintained. One
should not interpret it in such a way as to contradict some other valid
means of knowledge".

Several different derivations have been given for the word 'Narayana' in
Sankara's bhAshya on Vishnu sahasranAma and in SrImad BhAgavata Sk.10, ch.14.
I do not know whether these are what Shri Reddy has in mind.

Appayya Dikshita has clarified in one sloka that he never had any bias
against Vishnu. The translation of the sloka is: "Let the purport of the
Upanishads be Vishnu or Siva. We who are adherents of Advaita Vedanta have
certainly no quarrel about that. But my effort is only to break the
perverted arguments of those whose minds are consumed by the blazing fire of
hatred of Siva. Let it not be thought, on this ground, that I harbour hatred
against Vishnu".

S.N.Sastri