[Advaita-l] shlokah on Vyasa

[Srikanta Narayanaswami]

This is with reference to Venkat sriram's Email on the above.He quotes from 
Bhagawata to say that the word,"madhyamam"means amidst.But,in his poem there is 
no mention of this.Secondly,Shankara cannot be referred to as "amidst'as there 
are other acharyas including asmadacharya in the midst.Further,the word "amidst' 
to Shankara shows that he is one among other acharyas,which is not show.He is 
Dakshinamurthy as he is accorded a place of great preceptor,in Advaita vedanta,
Moreover,sadashiva is traditionally considered as the first Guru in this 
sampradaya,but Vishnu is accorded an equal place as the first Guru.If madhyagam 
is not apt
grammatically as he claims,let him show where the mistake lies.But,in Sringeri 
sampradays,the word "madhyagam"is oft repeated refer:L.N.Sastri's book on the 
history of Sringeri published in kannada.

It is true that,the word'madhyamam"has Buddhistic overtones,as Buddha taught the 
madhyama pratipad to his disciples.If the word'madhyama"is meant here,Arjuna is 
referred to as "madhyama"pandava in the Mahabharatha.It surely means "who is at 
the centre" and not "amidst"which surely reduce the prominence of Acharya 
Shankara.

Regs,
N.Srikanta.