[Advaita-l] Fwd: SSS, avidyA, shrI Ramakrishnan

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

praNAms Sri Ananda Hudli prabhuji
Hare Krishna

AH Prabhuji :

Honestly, there is no need to apologize because I have not been offended by

anyone on the list. I have argued with some members but that does not mean
I
have taken it personally. So relax and rest easy.

bhaskar :

Your kind assurance gives me a lot of relief prabhuji. Thanks a lot for
your immediate clarification.  With that assurance as a backdrop, I shall
now try to share my part of understanding on your observation.

AH prabhuji :

As I said in my message to Jaldhar Vyas, we need to go beyond personal
issues and solve the fundamental problem. How should we treat AchAryas in
Shankara's sampradAya? This is more important to me.

bhaskar :

prabhuji, it is true that we should give utmost respect to our Advaita
saMpradAya Acharya-s.  There is no second opinion on it... But giving
respect does not mean we should blindly accept whatever respected Acharya
say, ...Sri SSS, in one of his works do acknowledge the enormous help which
he accrued from the study of later vyAkhyAnakAra's works.  But after a
comprehensive study of bhAmati, vivaraNa & shankara mUlabhAshya parallelly
(not self-study ofcourse), Sri SSS felt that there is lot of *internal
quarrels/inconsistencies* with regard to shankara siddhAnta between bhAmati
& vivaraNa schools & thought that it is near to impossible task to come to
the undisputable conclusion with regard to *certain* doctrinal issues in
advaita though ultimately these schools propagating shankara's
AtmaikatvavAda. And finally he found that there is a drastic deviation in
some principal aspects of advaita as propounded by shankara & as
interpretated by these post shankara schools...We may recall here that if
at all there was no dispute between bhAmati & vivaraNa & if at all these
schools were in complete harmony with shankara siddhAnta, then there was no
need for any *reconciliation* work from Sri appayya dIkshita in siddhAnta
lEsha saNgraha & again there was no need for further clarification on this
work in the form of siddhAnta kalpavalli. So it is evident that *internal
quarrel/inconsistency* was quite prevalent even at the time of Sri appayya
dIkshita & there was a *need* for *reconciliation* to patch up these
discrepancies.   Sri SSS, feels that even this *reconciliation* deals ONLY
with some minor points & not in totality (reference vide his Kannada book
*shankara siddhAnta* in the introduction he states this point)... Hence, he
has taken the task of showing shankara siddhAnta as one can find within
shankara's undoubtedly accepted works.  In this endeavour it was essential
for him to brought out the glaring differences between mUla bhAshya & later
vyAkhyAna-s.  During this tedious process, at times, he might have used
some *adjectives* while defining the attitude of later vyAkhyAnakAra-s
towards shankara siddhAnta...but that does not anyway mean that Sri SSS had
any *personal grudge* to attack vyAkhyAnakAra-s personally. Time gap is so
huge for Sri SSS to engage in this type of mundane task :-))  If you read
his works, you'll come to know how objective he was in his approach to
shankara siddhAnta, and how particular he was in vyAkhyAna as against
vyAkhyAnakAra!!!

AH prabhuji:

Do you not think we should listen to HH Bharati Tirtha, who
is the Guru of even your Guru Vidyasankar, who advises us that all of the
AchAryas in Shankara's sampradAya have unanimously supported Shankara's
central teachings, have not caused damage to the central principles of
advaita, and that studying the later AchAryas' works is only beneficial to
us? I may add that if we do not study the works of later AchAryas it will
only be a loss to us.

bhaskar :

Nobody denying it prabhuji..let us respect our guru paraMpara, let us
respect our advaita tradition, let us adopt our Achraya's hitOpadEsha/
dharmOpadEsha, let us do pAda sEva with wholehearted devotion.. But. at the
same time, let us accept the fact that it is not an unpardonable sin to
verify how these vyakhyAna-s are true to the mUla bhAshya.

Anand

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar