[Advaita-l] The Evolution of Advaita from Sankara till Date

[Ananta Bhagwat]

----- Original Message ----

From: sivaramakrishnan muthuswamy <muthushiv at yahoo.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 2:25:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] The Evolution of Advaita from Sankara till Date

PraNam Muthuswamyji.

Can we define who is advaitin?
Can we say a particular person to be advaitin?
We have to be advaitin ourself to certify X to be advaitin.
jIvanamukta most likely will keep away from this issue.
At the vyavahAra level it is going to be subjective belief.

If somebody say Sankara or gauDapAda or RamaNa are not advaitin can I counter them?
They can say Sankara was not one but many. They can say gauDapAda was a hypothetical person.
They can say Sankara was emotional because he called NaiyyAyiks bulls without horn. They can say Sankara was not a true sannyAsi because he established maths all over India with some ulterior motive other than moxa for himself. They may say he composed beautiful bhajans because he was a dualist. etc.

It is my belief that both Sankara and Vivekananda were Hindus and advaitins of the highest order. Both were also reformers in their own way. If somebody decides to call them neo-Hindus or neo-Vedantins of their times, I have no problem. I believe, Sankara wandered four corners of India and established pETha-s not only for his own moxa. Similarly, Vivekanada's social service and his establishing advaitASrama was not aimed at his own moxa. Ultimately advaitin or neo-advaitin are labels and both are beyond these labels though for vyavahAra we may decide to label them such and such.

ananta