[Advaita-l] Comments of an ISCKON follower

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

Sri Krishna Chaitanya was initiated by Sri Kesava Bharathi, a sannyasi in
Sankara line. The gaudiya vaishnava explanation for this is that Sri
Krishna Chaitanya initiated Sri Kesava Bharathi in to vaishnavism first and
then got initiated by him! Then Sri Krishna Chaitanya's sannyasa will be
invalid because you cannot take sannyasa from your own disciple!! The
counter to that is that Sri Krishna Chaitanya got initiated in to sannyasa
mantras in his dream by a brahmana. A brahmana, who is not a sannyasi,
cannot give sannyasa diksha. So, that will also make his sannyasa invalid.
The third explanation is that he got initiated in to Sankara line because
he was instructed to do so by a divine brahmana in his dream but his mind
did not accept the tat tvam asi explanation of Sankara. It only accepted
the meaning of tasya tvam asi! If he did not accept the instruction of
Sankara, then also his sannyasa will be invalid. But that he accepted
Sankara line is evident from the fact that he shaved his head and removved
his thread. Such an act is considered to be inappropriate in the vaishnava
sampradayas. The textual evidence for this is there in all diaries of
Murari Gupta, Svarup Damodar, Chaitanya Mangala and Chaitanya Bhagavatha. A
painting commissioned by the Pratapuadra, the King of Orissa, who was a
contemporary of Sri Krishna Chaitanya also shows that he did not have
thread. So, it is beyond doubt clear that Sri Krishna Chaitanya is a
Sankaracharya. This sannyasa form of Sri Krishna Chaitanya is not
worshipped in gaudiya vaishnava circles. I will forward this painting in a
separe e-mail. He also followed the advaita commentary of Sridhara Swami.
The explanation for this is that Sri Krishna Chaitanya changed some of the
teachings of Sridhara Swami while explaining Bhagavatam to his students. It
is interesting that there is no record of the changes in the works of any
of the gosvamis!

The instruction to not read Sankara comes in Chaitanya Charitamrta, written
by Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj after his time. In fact, none of the six gosvamis
mention Sankara by name. Sri Jiva Gosvami, who was four years old when Sri
Krishna Chaitanya left, mentions Sankara indirectly with the words "tadiya
bhashye". Anyway, according to Chaitanya Charitamrta, Sri Krishna Chaitanya
said with regard to Sankara, "Acharya means Sankara" but with respec to
Sankara bhashya, "One who hears the mayavada bhashya will meet with total
destruction". This is clearly a later day development in the line of Sri
Krishna Chaitanya, a Sankaracharya. That Chaitanya Charitamrta twists the
position with respect to Sankara line will be clear on comparing its
description of Sarvabhauma incident with that described in Chaitanya
Bhagavatha, which is contemporary. In the latter, Sri Krishna Chaitanya
discusses bhakti with Sarvabhauma, a grahastha scholar in Sankara line.
Then he shows his six armed form as Rama, Krishan and Chaitanya. In
Chaitanya Charitamrta, he converts Sarvabhauma from Sankara line to
Vaishnavam!

Visvanath Chakravarthy, who came much after Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj, quotes
Gaudapada, Sankara, Sridhara and Madhusudana favourably. So, though he
accepted the philosophy of achintya bhedhAbheda, he did not seems to have
read Advaita works not minding the prohibition by Sri Krishna Chaitanya!
 On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 6:47 PM, abhishek sm <abhishek046 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Recently, I had come across an internet post made by a resident of
> Melbourne. It seems that while reading one of the works of ISKCON, he
> came across a statement that- "Shankaracharya had know knowledge of
> what bhakti is". The man had studied few works of Sri Sankara like
> stotrams,etc and felt this statement was absurd. On enquiring the
> chief disciples about the basis for this, the disciple replied that
> none of Shankara's work contain any bhakti at all!!
> Further he went up to the chief of that ISKCON branch and on asking
> the same question he got the same answer. So, he asked the chief a
> counter question- "Which works of Shankara have you studied till
> date?".
> To this, the chief replied that, Sri Chaitanya has clearly given them
> instructions that they should not even look at the works of Shankara
> as they are very dangerous!!!
> The guy from Melbourne says he felt pity for the immaturity of those
> people!
>
> On 3/18/12, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Sudhakar Kabra
> > <sudhakarkabra at yahoo.com>wrote:
> >
> >> If ISKCON concept does not match with other thinkers, it is not wise on
> >> the part of ISKCON to call others fools.
> >
> >
> > Sankara says that those who dont accept the correct
> > (advaitic) interpretation of tat tvam asi are the meanest among
> scholars. I
> > even remember seeing the term mudha with respect to other traditions in
> his
> > works.  If you want to turn the audience mind to an issue, criticize
> > theopponent. It works like magic much better than logic. It is a powerful
> > tool but should be used very sparingly as otherwise you will be branded
> as
> > disrespectful and your words will lose value.
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