[Advaita-l] Madhusudhana Saraswathi and Advaita.

[Srikanta Narayanaswami]

Sri.V.Subramaniam wrote:
Sir
In fact in that kArikA bhashya there is no clear-cut indication that it is
'HIraNyagarbhaa ONLY' that is meant by GaudapAda by the word 'upAsanA'.  At
the end of the bhAshya for this kArikA shankarAchArya quotes a kenopaniShad
mantra: 1.1.4: yadvAchAnabhyuditam.......nedam yadidam upAsate.   And in
that upanishad bhashyam Shankara says: नेदं ब्रह्म यत् ’इदम्’ इति
उपाधिभेदविशिष्टम् अनात्मा ईश्वरादि उपासते ध्यायन्ति ।  Here both the mantra
and Shankara emphasize that the Ultimate Brahman is NOT anything that is
meditated upon as something that is 'this'.  In other words the upAsanA of
anything other than the Self, Brahman, is always as 'this' and not as 'I
myself'.  So Shankara/and the Upanishad / seeks to characterize this upAsya
as anAtman itself.  Note the word 'IshvarAdi' in Shankara's bhashyam.  This
shows that by the term 'upAsanA' GaudapAda is not restricting the meaning
to just Hiranyagarbha, it could be anything, an avatAra mUrti, like
Krishna, Rama, Narasimha, etc. that could be meditated upon.  These also
fall under the category of 'idam' and therefore anAtmA in Advaita.

Of course, bhakti to these is not prohibited and it is only encouraged in
order to to enable karma yoga and chitta ekAgratA.  What GaudapAda and
Shankara and this Kenopanishad mantra quoted are saying is: this is not the
Ultimate.
_______________________________________________________________________________
For the Karika(III.13):
"Jivatmanornanyatvambhedena prashasyate!
Nanatvam nindyate yacca yadevam hi samanjasam!!"
 
Here shankara comments:
Yat yuktitah shrutitasca nirdharitam jivasya parasya ca atmanah jivatmanoh ananyatvam abhedhena prasasyate stuyate shastrena vyasadibhisca.Yacca sarvapranisadhranam svabhavikam sastrabahishkrtaih kutarkikaih viracitam nanatvadarshanam nindyate"na tu tadvitiyamasti"(Br.4.3.23),"dvitiyad vai bhayam bhavati"(Br.1.4.2),"udaramantaram kurute atha tasya bhayam bhavati"(Tiai.2.7)"idam sarvam yadayamatma"(br.2.4.6),"mrtyoh sa mrtyumapnoti ya iha naneva pashyati"(Ka.2.1.10) ityadi vakyaisca anyesca Brahavidbhih yachyetat tat evam hi samanjasam rjvavabodham nyayam ityarthah!Yastu tarkika parikalpitah kudrstayah tah anrjvaih nirupyamana na ghatanam prancanti ityabhiprayah!!
 
Nanu shrutyapi jivaparamatmanoh prthaktvam pragutpatteh utpatyarthopanishadvakyebhyah purvam prakirthitam karmakande anekashah kamabhedatah "idam kamah,adahkamah"iti.Parasca "sa dadhara,prthivim dyam...(Ri.0.121.1) ityadimantravarnaih!Tatra katham karmajnanakandavakyavirodhe jnanakandavakyarthasyeva ekatvasya samanjasyam avadharyate it?Atrocyate:
Jivatmanoh prthakthvam yat pragutpatteh prakirtitam!
Bhavisyavrtya gaunam tanmukyatvam hi na yujyate!!-14.
N.Srikanta.