[Advaita-l] Shankara authenticates Shiva

[Sujal Upadhyay]

Namaste,

Where did you find these discussions *started* by Advaitin, claiming Siva
is supreme and that vishnu is not supreme?

Advaitins in general do not attack any school of thought, not atleast
active members in this list, unless they find something objectionable on
the net and they reply to it or post a link to that reply. For us,
superiority of any God does not matter.

To talk straight, I had a direct interaction with authors of Narayanastra
Blog over email and on other forums. The claims that they are making simply
didnt fit advaita. They consider VSN bhashya as authentic work of Adi
Sankara. When shown quotes #27 Siva and #114 rudra and #505 soma, they will
ignore. Then they quote Madhusudan Sarasvati, a great kRShNa bhakta. When
shown quotes from Siddhanta Bindu, BG or his unique commentary on Siva
mahimna stotra - all showing Siva = Vishnu, they will disregard it as mere
grammatical play of words. They will disregard writings of Sri Vidyaranya
Swami. They will disregard the whole set of puranas as tamasika. They will
disregard all the pUrvAchArya-s of advaita who saluted to Siva or Ganesha
and say that they are not following true teachings of Adi Sankara.
Honestly, in the beginning all seems well to discuss with them, but as
discussion continues, they become hostile, start name calling openly in
public forums like Veera Shaiva, etc, and their language changes. Apologies
for directly brining them here, but many posts here that you are pointing
out are replies to them.

Honestly, I have seen few Vaishnavas who are very knowledgeable and keep
attacking Siva bhakta-s on internet. I have been personally attacked most
times by Gaudiya Vaishnavas and also by Sri Vaishnavas. I talked to 2
people running blogs proving supremacy of Siva and have seen all those
quotes that you said in their blog. They both said that if one says Siva =
Vishnu, our differences end here. Infact on author is a Rama bhakta like
me. Both authors are not Saiva-s.

Adi Sankara has also explained rudra in VSN, but you tend to ignore this
fact.

Advaitin do not prove anything, nor Adi Sankara had written commentaries
with sole aim to prove viShNu supremacy.

Two contradictory verses are not contradictory if we apply nAhi nindA
nyAya.

Yes, the verses you mention are quoted recently and in past, but in
response to similar verses claiming Vishnu supremacy. I also agree that
words like 'Krishna begged' are used. But I have seen these words being
used by Vaishnava-s too. I know this is not right, but it happens.

When there are proofs that claim superiority of Vishnu over Siva and then
there are proof that claim superiority of Siva over Vishnu, then the point
is that when one God is glorified and other is shown a lower status, it is
to instill bhakti in us. Gods themselves teach us devotion by one God
playing a role of devotee and another God playing role of Ishvara. As
smArta-s, how can we denigrate status of any Gods.  Both of them are equal.
However, if someone is filled with hatred and the sole aim is to denigrate
the status of Vishnu, I will strongly disagree with him and if necessary
quote verses support Vishnu as supreme deity.

Had there been no such topic, there would not have been such quotes. Nobody
is stopping you from quoting verses. You are only getting replies. I have
not seen a discussion here that continues when both parties accept Siva =
Vishnu.

You can quote praises on Vishnu as many times as you want and adore him to
your heart's content, translate various stotra-s dedicated to Vishnu and
post them here or give links. We will all enjoy. But when someone tries to
prove supremacy, then what has happened is expected.

​This argument seems to go on and on. To be fair, I would not mind you
replying, but will resist myself replying and retire from this discussion.​

Lastly, if, at any time, such verses are quoted by me in past, I ask for
apology and take my words back. If you are hurt by my words beg for
forgiveness.

Hari OM
Kind Regards
Sujal


On Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 11:43 PM, D Gayatri <dgayatrinov10 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I dont know you who you are but I did not see you objecting when
> others were posting that
>
> (i) Shiva is alone fit to be worshipped by vaidikas
>
> or that
>
> (ii) Vishnu lives under Shiva's grace
>
> or that
>
> (iii) Krishna begged Shiva to forgive him (for God knows what)
>
> or that
>
> (iv) Vishnu pulled out one of his eyes and offered it to Shiva (you
> can see all the posts in this forum).
>
> After posting all this, these posters pay lip service sometimes and
> say - oh and by the way Shiva and Vishnu are equal!
>
> I suddenly don't understand what is the problem when Vishnu is praised
> and Shiva is shown as brahma's child when Sri Adi Shankara himself
> authenticates this.
>