[Advaita-l] Shankara authenticates Shiva

[V Subrahmanian]

One can see an article here by a member whose identity many people in this
forum do not know of:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/science-religion-philosophy/LIUh1wz4zGw

vs

On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 9:23 AM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 1:13 AM, Sujal Upadhyay via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>>
>
> This is true. There are some bloggers and their supporters, who try to
> portray Shankara as a vaishnava who had bias towards Vishnu and held Shiva
> to be inferior. In order to dispel this mispropaganda posts that bring out
> the views of Veda Vyasa and Shankara have been found necessary. An
> Advaitin, following Veda Vyasa and Shankara is never biased towards or
> against any deity.  This is because Advaita is not a deity-dependent
> system. Other schools alone have to safeguard constantly their deity from
> the supremacy of any other deity.
>
> regards
> vs
>
>>
>> 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.
>> >
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