[Advaita-l] Was Shankaracharya a Vaishnava??

[V Subrahmanian]

Dear Sri Pradyumna,

The question you have raised and the points you have listed are all well
analyzed and answered. To put it succinctly, the names Vishnu, Vasudeva,
Narayana, are for Shankara that Brahman which is non-different from other
deities like Rudra, Brahmaa, etc. The fundamental reason is this: For
Shankara, whether it is saguna or nirguna brahman, it is ananta. Anantatva
is of three types: desha pariccheda rahita, kaala pariccheda rahita and
vastu pariccheda rahita.  The first two are accepted by Dvaitins. The third
is accepted by Advaitins and V.Advaitins, in different ways. For advaitins
if Brahman is absolutely, taattvikavaagi, different from any entity whether
it is a deity, human or rishi or any jaDa object, then such Brahman, being
tainted by vastu paricchedatva, will lose its status of being Brahman, the
jagatkaaraNam, the prapancha adhishthanam. That is why in Taittiriya
Bhashya Shankara has said for ananta:

 सर्वानन्यत्वात् । भिन्नं हि वस्तु वस्त्वन्तरस्य अन्तो भवति,
वस्त्वन्तरबुद्धिर्हि प्रसक्ताद्वस्त्वन्तरान्निवर्तते । यतो यस्य
बुद्धेर्निवृत्तिः, स तस्यान्तः । तद्यथा गोत्वबुद्धिरश्वत्वान्निवर्तत
इत्यश्वत्वान्तं गोत्वमित्यन्तवदेव भवति । स चान्तो भिन्नेषु वस्तुषु दृष्टः ।
नैवं ब्रह्मणो भेदः । अतो वस्तुतोऽप्यानन्त्यम् ।

Vastu pariccheda is actually bheda which is anyonya abhava. A chair and
table are different, chair is not in table and vice versa. If Brahman,
named Narayana, is different from, say Rudra, then there is abhava of N in
R and vice versa. That way R will limit N. This is not admitted by
Shankara.  There is nothing in creation, past, present and future that is
non-different from the Advaitic Brahman.

If you are interested, here is an article that discusses the fundamental
difference between the Vishnu of Shankara and Ramanuja:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p9fGP6xpmPd5bio5Oqq3-sasMLa-JiUb/view?usp=sharing

regards
subbu



On Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 12:50 PM P R via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> I have had this question for a long time whether Shankaracharya was a
> Vaishnava
> I have listed a few reasons for it
> 1. The Geetha Bhashya starts with the mangalacharana as Narayanaha paro
> avyaktha.
> 2. Geetha Adhyaya 18 Shloka 61
> Ishwara sarva bhutanam hrudeshe arjuna tishtathi
> Here shankaracharya comments as Eshwara eshanasheelaha narayana ityartha
> 3. The 3 amnaya peethas established by him were in vaishnava places viz
> badrinath ,puri,dwaraka. Some people also believed that he had stayed in
> kanchi for a long time which has the shrine of Varadaraja
> 4. During his mother's last days,shankaracharya gave him Krishna mantra
> upadesha and composed bhaja govindam
> 5. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad :- eshate mama atma antaryami amrutaha
> here while commenting shankaracharya has given the mening of antaryami as
> narayana
>
> Due to all these points and many more too, I have had this question
> Please throw some light on this
> Regards
> Dr Pradyumna R
>
>
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