[Advaita-l] Fwd: Rama and Krishna are Jiva-s - Mahabharata

[Kalyan]

Sri Praveenji

Yes, Mbh is not the only source. I talked about Mbh because the original poster, Sri Subrahmanian, referred to it. 

Yes, Shankara's definition of Ishwara is broad, but he unambiguously considers Krishna as Ishwara.

For your third point, the idea that Vishnu is Ishwara is present in the upanishads (narayana suktam). If it were not present, even Shankara would not have accepted. So the vaishnavas are well justified in calling themselves as vedantins. Shaivas too would be similarly justified.

Regards
Kalyan

--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 5/24/17, Praveen R. Bhat <bhatpraveen at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Fwd: Rama and Krishna are Jiva-s - Mahabharata
 To: "Kalyan" <kalyan_kg at yahoo.com>
 Cc: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>, "Venkata sriram P" <venkatasriramp at yahoo.in>
 Date: Wednesday, May 24, 2017, 4:03 PM
 
 Namaste
 Kalyanji,​
 On Wed, May 24, 2017 at
 9:14 PM, Kalyan <kalyan_kg at yahoo.com>
 wrote:
 Because the Mahabharata does not give scope for such an
 interpretation. The central theme of Mbh is that when dharma
 declines, Ishwara himself descends to earth to restore
 order. ​​M.Bh. is not
 the only source to know who Ishvara is.​​
  In Mbh, this Ishwara is
 Krishna. Shankara also gives a similar summary in his intro
 to gita bhashya.
 Yet Shankara's
 definition of Ishvara is not Krishna known as Vasudeva putra
 or even Vishnu sitting elsewhere in some
 heaven.
 Vaishnavas might pray to
 Shiva. But I am pretty confident that Vishnu alone is the
 moksha giver for them.
 
 
 ​Note
 below​  
 //On a related
 
  matter, I do not know as
 to why those who call themselves as
 
  Vedantins​,​ following Advaita
 Vedanta take to a non-Vedanta
 
  source as having more authority in their
 
  doctrine.//
 
 
 
 Not sure what you are trying to say here.
  If
 that "giver of moksha" ​being Vishnu as some
 deity is established from non-Upanishad source, then it
 cannot be called as Vedanta doctrine.
 ​gurupAdukAbhyAm,
 --Praveen R. Bhat
 /* येनेदं
 सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन
 विजानीयात्। Through what
 should one know That owing to which all this is known!
 [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
 ​