[Advaita-l] Paul Hacker's erroneous view

[D Gayatri]

On 3 September 2016 at 19:27, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l
<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> In addition to Padmapadacharya, Sureshvaracharya and Totakacharya also
> refer to Shankaracharya as Lord Shiva himself in their works.
>
> 4.76 of Naishkarmya Siddhi
> विष्णोः पादानुगाम् यां निखिलभवनुदं शंकरो$वाप योगात् ।
> सर्वज्ञं ब्रह्मसंस्थं मुनिगणसहितं सम्यग् अभ्यर्च्य भक्त्या ।
> विद्यां गंगाम् इवाहम् प्रवरगुणनिधेः प्राप्य वेदान्त दीप्तं ।
> कारुण्यात् ताम्  अवोचं जनिमृतिनिवहध्वस्तये दुःखितेभ्य: ।
> I duly reverenced Shankara, ever established in Brahman, surrounded by a
> host of sages. Having obtained this knowledge proclaimed through the
> Upanishads, this knowledge that is like the Ganges and leads to moksha
> which Shankara brought down to earth through yoga, I have set forth this
> work out of compassion for the suffering jivas so that their stream of
> births and deaths may end.
>
> Here Sureshvaracharya compares himself to Bhagiratha who brought the Ganges
> (knowledge) to earth through the mediation of lord Shankara.


Two things I want to point out here -

1. You seem to have missed the reference to Vishnu completely in your
translation! The Ganga flows from the foot of Vishnu.

2. This is an upamAna and not an incarnation theory. If you believe
this is an incarnation theory, then Sureshwara would be the
incarnation of Bhagiratha!

Sureshwara describes Shankara as bearing the name of Shiva in his
Taittiriya vartika (bhava-nAma-bhRto-yateh, 3.10.48-49, reference,
Life and work of Shankaracharya, by Govind Chandra Pande). There is no
mention that Shankara is the incarnation of Shiva. Once again, there
is only a mention of similarity of names, but not identity.