[Advaita-l] Vedastuti part I

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008, NARAYANA MURTHY wrote:

> Shri Jaldhar Vyas mahASayA, this has reference to your reference to 
> shridharacharya as considered by gaudiyas which is mentioned below.   
> The most influential commentator, shrIdharAcharya is claimed by gauDIyas 
> as one of their own but in fact was an advaitin too.   There is factual 
> inaccuracy.   Gaudiyas do not claim shridharacharya as one of their own 
> but denounce him in no uncertain terms  

Thankyou for your comments and sorry for the long delay in responding.

The link you gave is very interesting but I don't know if it can be 
considered "pramAna" for the official view of the gauDIyas as it seems to 
be a forum for dissidents from that sect.  In my own conversations (or 
arguments or shouting matches :-) with ISKCONites and the like I have 
heard several times that Shridhar was a Vaishnava and they find it 
unbelievable that he could be a "Mayavadi" This is a huge problem for them 
because Chaitanya himself spoke with approval of this commentary.  Yet it 
is obvious to anyone who actually deigns to read it that it follows an 
advaita interpretation and quotes Shankaracharya and other advaitins such 
as Chitsukha and Punyanand with respect.  In fact one person in the forum 
you mentioned says there is a tradition that Shridharacharya was the 10th 
jagadguru of the Puri math.

I have also been told that Shridharacharya was a shishya of Vishnuswami in 
the shuddhadvaita sampradaya.  The problem with this is that 
shuddhadvaita Vedanta is for all practical purposes the creation of 
Vallabhacharya who wrote his own commentary on the Bhagavata out of 
dissatisfaction with existing ones.  As far as I know the present Pushti 
Margis (the followers of Vallabhacharya) don't read Shridharacharya which 
is very strange if he is one of the founding acharyas of their sampradaya 
isn't it?


On Mon, 22 Sep 2008, sunil bhattacharjya wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> Yes, Sridharacharya was an advaitin and so also was Keshava Kashmiri
> Bhattacharya (who initiated Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and given the latter
> the shodadakshiya Mahamantra). I have read it in the Tattvaprakashika,
> the commentary of the Bhagavad Gita by Keshava Kashmiri Bhattacharya.

Do you mean Keshava Bharati?  Keshava Kashmiri was one of the leaders of 
the Nimbarka sampradaya and lived about 100 years before Chaitanya so it 
is exceedingly unlikely that he could have initiated him. Swami Keshava 
Bharati on the other hand was definitely an Advaitin dashanami sannyasi 
who gave Chaitanya sannyasa diksha.

As we have previously discussed in the list, there is ample evidence to 
show the Gaudiya movement began as a splinter of Advaita Vedanta rather 
than from some Vaishnava origin and only developed its vehement emnity to 
its parent sometime after Chaitanya.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>