[Advaita-l] On the question of the date of Shankaracharya

[srikanta at nie.ac.in]

This is with reference to the Email of Sri. Michel Shepherd that Shankara
quoting Chinese Buddhist statement of 7 th century doesnot add to the
question of Shankara reviving the  ancient Adwaitic tradition.
I would like to make this matter clear.That Shankara revived ancient
Adwaitic tradition is beyond doubt.Nor does he rely upon the logic of
other schools to revive the ancient Adwaitic tradition.It has already been
revived from time to time by the Sruthi and smrti pramanas.What Shankara
did was to clear the confusion in the minds of the people,notably the
traditionalists by his piercing logic about Adwaita.This has been done by
his ParamaGuru Acharya Gaudapada also in his Mandukyopanishad Karikas.The
stand point of logic is that it must clear all the questions regarding a
siddhanta to make it clear by answering all the objections against it.For
this Shankara in his Brahmasutra Bhashya and Upanishad bhashyas has
brought the various schools to show that these objections are
untenable.Only in the modern days we have different shades such as
Neoadwatism which is propagated by some neo-gurus in India and abroad.
                                                        N.Srikanta.