[Advaita-l] The Human aspect of Jnanis - 5 (Concluded)

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Dear Sri Vidyasankar :

Thanks for your exposition. I am agreement with it. But to address my point
of confusion, I would like to address your question:

>> Wherein lies the problem then?

The problem is that we take the import of the Vivekachoodamani or
Sankaracharya Bhashyas for coming to grips with the ultimate reality
(however approximate that may be). But there are other Bhasyas & works, for
example the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo or Suddha Advaita of
Vallabhacharya and many such. Each claims a Reality different from the
other, so much so that that they cannot be reconciled with each other.

Given this, if one believes (for legitimate reasons) that only his view is
correct, it indirectly means the author of the others would have to be taken
as fallible. If one says all views are correct, then Sankaracharya's
exposition is just a view, one among many. And then, oddly,  all the
different authors become, in some sense, fallible.  Truth is only expressed
through silence.

Thanks, Mahesh



On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 2:42 AM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <
svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> > I would like to add one more problem, which, I think, has not been
> covered
> > by your posts. When a person such as this writes a spiritual treatise -
> may
> > it be the Brahma Sutra or the Vivekachoodamani - who is the author of it?
> Is
> > it the BMI of the individual? If yes, it will not be Shruti (or revealed
>                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > text i.e. work without authorship). If not, then how does one explain why
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > Sankaracharya writes a Vivekachoodamani which has a different import as
> > compared to a work by Sri Madhavacharya? This can be also stated
> differently
> > as: if both Sankaracharya & Madhavacharya were self-realized souls, why
> do
> > they have different views on reality?
>
>
> Dear Sri Mahesh,
>
>
>
> I am puzzled by your question that is underlined above. Neither
> SankarAcArya
> nor mAdhvAcArya claims that the brahmasUtra is Sruti. Nor does either
> author
> claim that their commentaries and independent texts are Sruti or equivalent
> to
> it. The brahmasUtra has always been recognized to be the contribution of an
> individual author called bAdarAyaNa, who is sometimes identified with
> vyAsa.
> Not even SankarAcArya, whether Adi or titular over the centuries, has
> claimed
> that vivekacUDAmaNi is Sruti. It is recognized to be a prakaraNa grantha by
> an
> author. It is not put into the category of apaurusheya texts that
> constitute
> the Sruti. Nor does advaita tradition ask you to grant Sruti status to
> Sankara
> bhagavatpAda's bhAshya-s or prakaraNa grantha-s. It is a different case
> that
> a student needs to study these texts with the greatest care to assimilate
> them
> well. However, the truth of advaita does not depend upon giving Sruti and
> apaureshayatva status to these texts. When advaita readily admits that
> Sruti
> itself is transcended in the highest brahman realization, is there any need
> to
> further state the patently obvious? Namely, that the bhAshya-s and
> grantha-s
> of advaita vedAnta, derivate of Sruti as they are, also are transcended ...
>
> Wherein lies the problem then? Is there a need for an expectation of
> infallibility?
> Since when does a doctrine akin to papal infallibility become a necessity
> for any
> Hindu tradition? Isn't a doctine of infallibility in fact the greatest
> fallibility that is
> a hindrance to gaining true insight?
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Vidyasankar
>
>
>
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