[Advaita-l] Conference on that Date of Adi Sankaracharya in October, 2002

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Vidyasankarji,
At the outset I wish you and all the members of the Advaita forum a happy new year.
I am interested in knowing the true date of Adi Sankaracharya. I have the highest respect for the Sringeri math and I visited that math and I have not visited the Dwarka and the Puri math uptill now. Hope that will convince you about the regards I have for the Sringeri math.  I did visit the Kudali Sringeri math also and I was lucky to have the darshan of mother Sarada there at the confluence of Tunga and Bhadra. 
I also have respect for the Sankaracharyas of the Dwarka and the Puri maths. The Sankaracharyas of all the maths are holy persons and I respect them all. But my science training does not allow me to relish the different dates upheld by the different maths. I wish all the important people of all the maths established by Adi Sankara meet together to sort out the differences to arrive at a common date. If however we cannot agree to a common date can we not amicably agree to disagree?
I came to Mumbai on December 7 last. If you send me the address an the telephone number of your brother I would be able to contact him for the book by Shastri so that I can have look at that.
As regards the Sankara Vijaya you referred to are you sure it was written by Vidyaranya Swami himself an not by his namesake and do you think the great Tantric Abhinabhagupta, referred to in that, was from Kamarupa and not from Kashmir?
I was in touch with Gowrisankarji of the Sringeri math a few times in the past and there was another person with whom I had some correspondence but I do not recall his name now.
Hope mother Sarada will guide us in this endeavour to satisfy ourselves regarding the date of Adi Sankaracharya.
Looking forward to hearing from you and with regards,
Sunil K. Bhattacharjya


--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Conference on that Date of Adi Sankaracharya in October, 2002
To: "Advaita List" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 9:05 AM


Dear Mr. Bhattacharjya,

 

Really, you are insulting my intelligence and patience with your questions. Please decide whether you are
interested in 

 

a. the date of Sankaracharya,
b. casting aspersions on the Sringeri lineage
c. upholding the traditions of any other lineage(s)
d. upholding the faulty claims of the contested Kudali lineage
e. any of the combinations of the above.

 

Once you have decided what it is you want to do, please let us know. It seems to me you belong squarely
to the faction which is interested in throwing as much mud as possible at the Sringeri record, in the hope that
something sticks. I firmly decline to engage in this thread with you after this post. As I mentioned earlier, this
thread is moving in unexpected and unnecessary directions and I don't intend to contribute to it much further.
Every single one of your questions has been dealt with at length, numerous times in the past on this list,
including in this very thread. In my previous post, I used the word "arguably" with respect to the authenticity
of the Sringeri tradition, merely because I allow that others can have differing opinions about it and I defend
their right to hold their opinions, no matter how different they may be from my opinions and no matter how
wrong these opinions may be. I can only exercise my right to share what I know of the matter and sometimes
I choose not to, because it is often a futile exercise.

 

A few other points:

 

One, you can figure out for yourself about the origins of the Vikrama Samvat in India.

 

Two, you can go back to one of my previous posts on this very thread about the Sringeri stand on dates.

 

Three, have some respect for the tradition. Do not assume that scholars at Sringeri (or anybody else, for
that matter) have nothing better to do than to keep responding to your pesky emails. I am unaware which
scholars you have tried contacting at Sringeri. I, as you well know, am not an official spokesman of the
Sringeri Matha, no matter what some on this list may think. 

 

Four, please learn how to search on the internet. An article written by anybody, no matter how famous or

unknown, is not necessarily accessible through Google, especially as I already told you that it appeared as

part of a souvenir, with many other articles alongside it. The souvenirs themselves, will show up in searches,

and you can figure out how to look within them. Do not expect answers to be handed to you on a platter.
Doing literature searches takes time and patience. Did you try finding and reading Swami Tapasyananda's
translation of the Madhaviya Sankaravijayam, which quotes a letter from the Sringeri administration about

this very topic? If you have, don't you see that many of your questions are meaningless? If you have not,

why don't you first follow up on this and then ask your impertinent questions? Did you also take the trouble

to read the book, A History of Sringeri, by Prof. A. K. Shastri of Karnataka University, Dharwad? I have
mentioned this book several times in previous threads of discussion initiated by you on this list. Surely, you
can find that book via Google or some other easily accessible search. In fact, the top result on Google for
this book is a library in Australia. If you have not managed to find and read that book, may I ask what are
you waiting for? Is it your intention merely to ask questions on this list and not give any answers yourself?
If you are interested in doing research, please equip yourself with the necessary materials and methodology
to do a thorough and impartial job of it.

 

Five, develop the necessary patience. I already told you that I will try and dig up the said article when I
go to India next and post details. If you cannot wait and if this is such a pressing matter to you, you are
welcome to make a trip to my brother's house in Mumbai right now and search for it yourself. I can give you
the address, if you are willing to drop everything and make the trip.

 

Have a good new year,

Vidyasankar
 
                           
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