[Advaita-l] Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and Advaita?

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 6:01 AM, Sivakumar,Kollam <sivanr8010 at gmail.com>wrote:

> It is a gross mistake to asses the traditional
> works by  norms of western academicians
> and unfortunately this is the task in which most
> of the present day academic scholars indulge in.This is because most of the
> works on Adwaita and bhakthi literature is concerned with the subjective
> aspect ie.self which cannot be assessed from an objective aspect which is
> the approach of the academicians.Lack of understanding of this  seems to be
> the root cause of most of  problem related to study of
> Adwaita and Bhakthi. Most interesting fact is that despite the caution and
> advise of our Acharyas time to time we again and again indulge in same
> mistake!
> sivakumarr.
>

I share your concern on this.  With regard to almost every aspect of our
scriptural and related works we are carried away by the ill-conceived
opinions of academicians.  One such topic is the supposed influence of
Buddhism on Advaita.  People who have not had an opportunity to study the
Advaitic texts in their original, under the proper sampradaya, take up a
study by their own methods and arrive at conclusions that show Advaita in
poor light. Academicians both Indian and Western are in this campaign of
tarnishing the image of Advaita.  While Buddhism (and Jainism) came as
off-shoots of the Sanatana Dharma it would only be apt to conclude that the
influence, if any, went from the Vedic foundation to those schools.  I have
seen a (Dvaita) scholar writing in a book on the three major schools of
Vedanta: it would be proper to say that since the Buddhists formulated
their system borrowing from the NirguNa Brahman of the Upanishads they are
'pracchanna Vaidika-s'.

subrahmanian.v

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