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

[Kalyan K]

>I have myself heard more than once Swami Harshananda, President, Sri
>Ramakrishna Mutt, Bangalore, say "Sringeri is our mUla peeTham.  Sri Totha
>puri who initiated Sri Ramakrishna into Nirvikalpa samadhi belongs to the
>Shankara sampradaya.".  Even in the recently released DVD on the present
>Jagadguru Sri Bharati Tirtha SwaminaH of Sringeri, Swami Harshananda has
>reiterated the above view.

Dear Sri Subramanian, The swamiji must have said so out of respect for
Sringeri and due to Bangalore's proximity to Sringeri. The RK matt has its
origins in West Bengal and is not connected with Sringeri matt. The
headquarters of the RK matt is Belur Matt in West Bengal.

http://www.belurmath.org/home.htm

The ideology of the mutt also does not match that of traditional advaita as
one can verify here -

http://www.belurmath.org/Ideology.htm


That said, I have lot of respect for RK mutt. My point is that there is no
need to force-link everything good to the Sringeri mutt.

Regards
Kalyan



On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 9:47 PM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 7:05 PM, Rajaram Venkataramani <
> rajaramvenk at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>
> > As you know, Sringeri etc. are regarded as traditional because the line
> of
> > teachers trace back to Sankara, which is not the case with RK Mutt.
>
>
> I have myself heard more than once Swami Harshananda, President, Sri
> Ramakrishna Mutt, Bangalore, say "Sringeri is our mUla peeTham.  Sri Totha
> puri who initiated Sri Ramakrishna into Nirvikalpa samadhi belongs to the
> Shankara sampradaya.".  Even in the recently released DVD on the present
> Jagadguru Sri Bharati Tirtha SwaminaH of Sringeri, Swami Harshananda has
> reiterated the above view.
>
>
>
> > The risk with non-traditional mutts is that their teaching does not align
> > to the tradition. Having said that, traditional scholars *may, I am not
> > saying they do, * argue that Krishna and His form are different or that
> > Bhakti is not an ultimate goal, without studying Madhusudana, who closely
> > follows Sankara.
>
>
> This line of argument is indeed risky.  One's 'closely following' Shankara
> need not necessarily guarantee that what all he says is to be 'authentic'
> or acceptable.  For example, the just delivered talk by Sri Mani Dravid
> Sastrigal which I have summarized into English makes this point clear.  Sri
> Nagesha Bhatta, a grammarian, does closely follow Shankara and he is an
> Advaitin,  giving expression to Advaitic tenets wherever occasion arises.
>  Yet his adhering to the views of Vijnana Bhikshu who is not an advaitin
> and who is opposed to Shankara and Advaita is also to be seen in his works.
>
>
> Now, they pose a greater risk because the blind followers
> > will tend to believe that their view as authentic.
>
>
> People are at their own risk by blindly following any path.  That is why
> there is the need for  a sampradaya and Shankara's words: सर्वशास्त्रविदपि
> असम्प्रदायवित् मूर्खवदेव उपेक्षणीयः (Gita Bhashya)
>
>
> This is where the neutral contribution of academic scholars such as Prof.
> > Lance Nelson is
> > important. Through objective study, he has made the views of Madhusudana
> > public.
> >
>
> I had occasion to raise the topic of 'studies in/on Madhusudana Saraswati'
> with a knowledgeable person  and the reply I got is: There are people who
> have done a lot in this field but how accurate the information they give is
> again a question.
>
> subrahmanian.v
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