[Advaita-l] Shuka and Gaudapada

[V Subrahmanian]

When I long ago asked a knowledgeable person on the Shuka - Gaudapada
question, He said that nothing is known in the tradition other than that in
the lineage stated we have or rather count GaudapAda after Shuka.  Swami
Paramarthananda has said that up to Shuka it is Rishi paramparA and from
GaudapAda onwards it is manushya-guru parampara.

As others have pointed out, there need not be a physical one-to-one contact
in a parampara.  For example, in the case of Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati
Swamiji of the Sringeri Peetham, He was not given sannyasa by the
predecessor Acharya Sri Narasimha Bharati Swamiji.  The sannyasa deekshA
took place only after the death of the Guru.

There is an episode in the mAdhaveeya Shankara vijayam about
GaudapAdacharya appearing before Shankaracharya shortly before the end of
Shankara's avatAra and a short dialogue ensues.

subrahmanian.v