[Advaita-l] Significance of the term "Rameshwara"

[Sriram Krishnamurthy]

Namaste,
Below is the extract of the Anugraha Bhashanam of His Holiness
Sringeri Jagadguru, which pertains to the significance of the term
Rameshwara

Quote
The Jagadguru then explained the significance of the word “Rameswara”
by recounting an incident from the times of Sri Adi Shankaracharya.
Sri Padmapada, one of the chief disciples of Sri Adi Shankaracharya
undertook a pilgrimage and came to Rameswaram. The people of
Rameswaram questioned Sri Padmapada on the significance of the word
“Rameswara”. Sri Padmapada replied thus – Some people understand the
meaning to be “the Lord of Rama”. Others would say “He for whom Sri
Rama is the Lord”. Whereas we say that Rameswara is He who is Rama and
He who is Ishwara.

This was stated by Sri Padmapada because essentially, there is no
difference in the forms of Lord. People belonging to the first
category who state the meaning as “the Lord of Rama” feel that Lord
Shiva is greater than Sri Rama. The second category feel Sri Rama is
greater than Lord Shiva. Neither of these is acceptable to us. Hence
if some people explain the word “रामेश्वरः” using the Tatpurusha
Samaasa as रामस्य ईश्वरः, and others use the Bahuvreehi Samaasa as
रामः ईश्वरः यस्य सः, we Advaitins explain the identity of the forms of
the Lord and explain the word using Karmadhaaraya Samaasa as रामश्चासौ
ईश्वरश्च.
Unquote
The entire Anugraha Bhashanam can be found in the following link

http://vijayayatra.sringeri.net/rameswaram-may-17-2012/

Jagadguru's Chennai Yatra details are in the following link
http://www.sringeri.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/tour-programme-in-chennai.pdf
You may need adobe acrobat reader to read the above file.

Hari Om Tat Sat,
Sriram