[Advaita-l] Advaiti Response to this report?

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Kindly see some comments from this list members are referred in this
> and Dvaita responses are given for debates -
> http://www.sumadhwaseva.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Defeat-of-Advaitins.pdf

 
The contents of the above PDF document seem to have been written by
some contemporary Madhva Sannyasin named Vishwavandana Tirtha. I
won't get into the endless debate of who won and who lost in the older
historical debates, because the plain fact is that clear, impartial historical
evidence is absent. A lot of made-up stories have been circulating for a
long time, from both sides, so nobody can make any certain historical
conclusions about these. 
 
However, I can indeed speak about the reported exchange between Sri
Vidyamanya Tirtha and the Sringeri Sankaracharya. There are very old
canons of traditional debate and discussion, which are upheld to date, by
the Sringeri Sankaracharyas. The response of the Sringeri Acharya, as
reported in the above document, is exactly what I have heard from many
other sources whom I know too. It is perfectly in keeping with the gaurava
and gAmbhIrya of the Sringeri tradition. Plus, the suggestion that a pundit
of the Matha could have been invited to a debate was not accepted by the
visitng Madhva Swamiji. So it is quite silly of the writer to say that lame
reasons were given for not entering into the debate in the first place. He
does not seem to realize that the environment of traditional vedAnta
discourse, especially among distinguished Swamijis, is quite different
from what happens today, online and offline. The formalities are all there
for a reason and should have been respected.
 
Vidyasankar