[Advaita-l] Shankara authenticates Shiva

[D Gayatri]

On 19 August 2016 at 12:01, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l
<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> For Shankara,if Vishnu, or any deity is formed, it is anātmā and abrahma.
> He has clarified this in the kenopanishat bhashya. The criterion is: if the
> deity is upāsya, as 'he is different and I am different', it is anātmā.
> Why? The aspirant cannot identify with that deity as 'I am this'. If the
> deity is 'this' then it is anātma. So, only the nirguna chaitanyam is atma,
> brahma, according to Shankara.


Ishwara is not Anatma. Nor is jIva Anatma. They are both the Atman
with different sets of upadhis. Shankara clarifies this in his BU
bhAshya. Otherwise he would never have said that Narayana is
paramatman in his BSB.