[Advaita-l] Madhusudhana Saraswathi and Advaita.

[V Subrahmanian]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Srikanta Narayanaswami <
srikanta.narayanaswami at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> In his reply,V.Subramaniam had quoted the following karika on the
> "upasana".
> Sir,
>
> Sri GauDapAdAchArya in the kArikA 3.16 says:
>
> आश्रमास्त्रिविधा हीनमध्यमोत्कृष्टदृष्टयः ।
> उपासनोपदिष्टेयं तदर्थमनुकम्पया ॥ 16 ॥
> But,the term "pragutpateh"again occurs in the karika .14 of the Advaita
> prakarana.
> It says:
> Jivatmanoh prthakatvam yath pragutpatteh prakirtitam!
> bhavishyadvrtya gaunam tan mukhyatvam hi na yujyate!!--III.14.
> "the difference between the jiva and the Atman'which is said before the
> origination is only "gauna"(figurative)from the point oview of future
> occurrence,because it is not used in the "primary sense".
> Hence,the discussion is not with reference to the 'ashrama like
> hina,madhyama and utkrshta.
>

Sir,

My intention in quoting that kArikA and the bhashya was only to show that
the concept of Bhakti is well enshrined in the Vedic/Advaitic tradition and
not an addition from some other system at a later point of time.  Shankara
says that 'apart from the Ultimate Truth, the Vedanta has laid out upAsana
and karma too to cater to the less-equipped adhikArins so that they too
can, by adopting these means, rise up to the level of
understanding/appreciating the Ultimate Truth.  The Veda and the Advaita
Acharyas know very well that the difference between the jiva and Brahman
that underlies upAsana and karma is only a temporarily accepted feature for
the enabling their practice and that in the absolute terms there is no
difference of whatever kind.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v