[Advaita-l] REFERENCES FROM VARIOUS PURANAS, UPANISHADS, SASTRAS WHERE VISHNU, RAMA, KRISHNA DON BHASMA TRIPUNDRA AND VISHNU IS A PARAMA SHIVA BHAKTA

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 11:17 AM Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> praNAms Sri Sriram prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
>
> For we advaitins, it is immaterial whether Shiva is great or Vishnu is
> great; for us it is 'मायाशबल ब्रह्म' ... Yes, for personal worship, one can
> consider मायाशबल ब्रह्म to be Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Devi etc.
>
> > yes, for the advaitins hari, hara, devi etc. saguNa brahma (kArya brahma
> or sOpAdhika brahma) only nothing more nothing less than that, and it is
> immaterial for us who is superior to who  and who is inferior


Dear Bhaskar ji,

What you say is true. Even Dr.B N K Sharma (famous author of many Dvaita
related works in English), has said in a paper published in 1931-32
'Genuine Advaitism has no quarter to give to either Shiva or Vishnu'.





> to who and who wears what and in which shape since all are capable of
> giving the mumukshu the 'krama mukti' 😊 But it is quite amusing to read
> our advaitins perspective (ofcourse in the zeal of showing hara is noway
> inferior to hari) that is trying to convince the readers that hara is
> superior and hari (Vishnu) too wearing the bhasma to propitiate hara 😊
> This is,  in my opinion, clearly shows, we the socalled advaitins too
> somehow bigoted to prove some deity Is superior to some other deity.
> Though all these have been said to efface the bigoted views of dvaitins
> (Shaiva-s and vaishNava-s), we, ourselves, succumbing to this "my daddy
> strongest" trap without our knowledge.
>

Actually you have given  the reason too as to why some Advaitins take to
portray a position that might look 'bigoted'. The point is when a person
who is a beginner in Advaita is exposed to bigoted positions of Vaishnavas
denigrating Shiva, Devi, etc. and the branding of puranas as taamasic and
that too by saying that they will go to hell, and if his Ishta devata is
Shiva or any other which is not Vishnu, or his sampradaya is so, there will
be confusion caused in his mind as to what the correct position is. The
problem is aggravated when even Shankara and other early Advaitins are
misrepresented by Vaishnavas. Such a situation needs to be addressed. And
the only way for this is to counter the bigoted positions and present the
'other' position and articulate the balanced position. This alone will help
those who are on the verge of getting misguided.

warm regards
subbu


>
> and in due course of vedanta-chintana, one has to drop-off this अभिनिवेशः
> and transcend the petty aspects ....That is why during 'vedanta-chintana',
> one is advised to shake off all his previously acquired concepts.
>
>
>