[Advaita-l] Heavy Vedantic content in the Shiva Gita of the Padmapurana

[V Subrahmanian]

Heavy Vedantic content in the Shiva Gita of the Padmapurana

The Padmapurana has a section called Shiva Gita where the context of
expounding in detail the Vedantic message is a dialogue between Agastya and
Rama which occurs in a larger dialogue between Suuta and Rishis.. A number
of Vedantic ideas are brought out.  As Shankaracharya repeatedly says in
the Upanishad Bhashyas, the background story is a 'stuti', eulogy, of the
Vidya.  Just like the Bhagavadgita is a medium to convey the Vedantic truth
in the background of the Krishna-Arjuna dialogue, the Shivagita too is one
such.

There are several extant commentaries to the Shiva Gita which shows its
importance as a Vedantic work..

In these chapters one can read, with the commentary 'bAlAbodhini', the
dialogue in many chapters starting from:  https://sa.wikisource.org/s/1j9q
 where the fourth chapter is featured. One can go to the next chapter from
this page and so on and enjoy reading it.

A sample from this page:

अथर्वशिरसा देवं स्तुवन्तं मुनिमण्डलम् ।
गङ्गादितटिनीयुक्तमम्बुधिं नीलविग्रहम् ॥ ४१ ॥
श्वेताश्वतरमन्त्रेण स्तुवन्तं गिरिजापतिम् ।
अनन्तादिमहानागान्कैलासगिरिसंनिभान् ॥ ४२ ॥
कैवल्योपनिषत्पाठान्मणिरत्नविभूषितान्।

Rama sees the Lord Shiva with Parvati along with a great Parivaara.  Vishnu
is seen reciting the Sri Rudram with great concentration.  Rishis are seen
chanting the Atharvashiraa, Shvetashvatara and the Kaivalyopanishads.

These Upanishads have Upabruhmanam in other Puranas too such as the
Kurmapurana, Shivapurana, etc. Commentaries to these Upanishads from the
13th Century Advaitins are also available.  Lord Shiva is featured as the
Para Brahman in these Upanishads.

Further into the above resource one can get to see the rajju-sarpa,
shukti-rajata examples delineated. Here is a pdf of the select dhyanam of
Rama from the Shiva Gita, both in Devanagari and English fonts:

https://www.kamakotimandali.com/stotra/mahakailasanatha.pdf

Om Tat Sat