[Advaita-l] Re: SSS and Madhva

[Abhilash Shastry]

Sri Annapureddy Siddhartha Reddy wrote:    
There is a very good chance people after vyAsa could have diverged from his
philosophy. It's not like there is a continuing chain of teachers from vyAsa
(who we do not is even a historical person btw) down to gauDapAda (the
shuka-gauDapAda link is a strained one). And, on the other hand, Ananda
tIrtha claims that he learnt from vyAsa at badarI. Thus, the shuka-gauDapAda
link has no more or no less validity than the AnandatIrtha-vyAsa link.

   
  There is however a crucial difference between the two. Does gaudapada anywhere claim that he learnt the sampradaya from some a-historical shuka? It is the tradition that holds so in glorification of its teacher. Glorification of one's teacher by ascribing some supernatural feats to him is not uncommon and cannot be taken as willful deception by the teacher himself.
   
  In case of madhva it is different. He himself claims that he met vyasa and learnt it from him and then somewhere else he claims himself as incarnation of vayu. How seriously are we to take such claims? It leaves us with only two possibilities: either he was innocent but himself deluded in thinking that he met vyasa or he deliberately used deception to prove his theory. Which one is worse?
   
  --Abhilash

 				
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