[Advaita-l] Shankara authenticates Shiva

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 12:57 AM, S Jayanarayanan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> D Gayatri dgayatrinov10 at gmail.com wrote:
>
> > > > > > But when did I ever say that mere worship of Vishnu without any
> jnana, leads to immortality?
> > > > >
> > > > > When did I ever say that mere worship of Shiva without any jnana,
> leads to immortality?
> > > >
> > > > Err...chanting the rudram for instance...
> > >
> > > Revered Sir, how then do you interpret the following verse from the
> Jabala Upanishad?
> > > (Which, one must add, is an Upanishad that is quoted by Sankara!).
> > >
> > >
> > >   III-1. Then the disciple students (Brahmacharins of Yajnavalkya)
> asked him: ‘Pray, tell
> > >   us, what is that mantra by reciting which one attains immortality?’
> He replied: ‘By (reciting)
> > >   Satarudriya’. These mantras are indeed the names of (Rudra to
> achieve) immortality. By
> > >   (reciting) these (mantras) one becomes immortal.
> > >
> > >   atha hainaM brahmachAriNa UchuH ki.n japyenAmR^itatvaM brUhIti ||
> > >   sa hovAcha yAj~navalkyaH | shatarudriyeNetyetAnyeva ha vA
> > >   amR^itasya nAmAni ||
> > >   etairha vA amR^ito bhavatIti evamevaitadyAj~navalkyaH || 3||
> >
> > It is interesting to note that Shankara does not really quote this
> chanting
> > rudram verse at all.
> >
>
> Interesting that you chad oncluded in the original message on this thread
> that Sankara's *partial* quotes from the Mahabharata
> implies that the *whole* section of the Mahabharata must be genuine and
> taken at face value!
>
> http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2016-August/041878.html
>
>  "The first quotation of Shankara is from Mbh 12.338.1 in the critical
> edition. The complete verse is as follows"
>  ...
>  "Since Shankara quotes this incident from both these chapters (328 and
> 329 of Shanti parva), these incidents are
>   not interpolations as they have been authenticated by the great Shankara
> himself"
>
> As a matter of fact, Sankara quotes the Jabala Upanishad (JU) verses
> several times in his Brahma Sutra Bhashya (BSB):
>
>  BSB 1.2.32: quoted JU verse 2
>  BSB 2.1.3: quoted JU verse 5
>  BSB 3.4.20: quoted JU verses 4 and 5
>
> And the JU runs to only about a couple of pages, whereas the Mahabharata
> section on Purusha Suktam runs to more than three pages!
>
> The point is - if you can extrapolate Sankara's PARTIAL quotes from the
> Mahabharata as proof of acceptance of the entire section of the text,
> then one can equally well extrapolate Sankara's PARTIAL quotes from the
> Jabala Upanishad as proof of acceptance of the entire text of the JU!
>

Very rightly put.  Not just the JU, but even the Shve.Up. that Shankara has
quoted several times has this statement: 'Rudra is without a beginning.'
 Going by the above rule initiated by the original post of this thread,
Shankara accepts this fact of Rudra being beginningless and therefore holds
Rudra to be Brahman.

vs

>
> Cheers,
> Kartik
>
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