[Advaita-l] vedAntins at the time of shankara

[Aditya Kumar]

  In the bhAShyam on
various Upanishads/brahma sutra/Bh.GitA Shankara has dealt with several
vAdins
such as BhartRuprapancha, Ashmarathya, aUDulomi etc. who are ultimately
advaitins but on certain aspects they differ with the mainstream Advaita
Vedanta as taught by GaudapAda –Shankara/Veda vyasa. 
A : I wonder why Shankara didn't merely list all their views and call them 'prakriya bedha'. Ultimately, there is no 'Advaita hani' as everyone agrees with identification of Jiva/Brahman. Do these differences really matter in vyavaharika plane? Was Shankara perceived as a rebel within the 'tradition'? Most importantly, what happened to the holier-than-though 'sampradayic teachings' because obviously this abstract could never go wrong.....No need of any debates, no need of bashyas, no need of reason or rationale, we can simply say - you are asampradayic idiot, a mere professor in some university etc


They could be those who
hold the view: (1) bheda in bandha is satyam and abheda in mokSha is satyam
too
(BSB 2.1.14). (2) Even after attaining the Advaitic sAkShAtkAra
(realization)
the jnAni/jIva is required by the shruti to perform his ordained duties
till the
fall of the body. These types have been alluded to and refuted by Shankara
in
the bhAShyas.
A : These are still 'negligible' when compared to glaring differences between post-Shankara sub-schools. But Shankara refuted them anyway. He could have said all these views could be reconciled/doesn't matter whatsoever/of no concern for sadhakas etc. There were so many rival schools at the time of Shankara including Vaishnava schools like Pancharatra. But he did not lean on any Shaiva school to refute them, because solely refuting Vaishnava schools was none of his concern. He also didn't attempt to reconcile such opposing schools, as though it would establish some utopian harmony. But this only shows the towering personality of Shankara as he was only concerned about establishing the truth of the Upanishads and not patronising cults.

warm regards

subbu