[Advaita-l] Gaudapada and Shankara

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 8:34 PM smallpress via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaskaram.
> My first post to this illustrious list. Thank you for inviting me in.
> I know that Gaudapada was at least partly addressing the Buddhists
> and other atheistic schools while writing his Karika on the Mandukya
> Upanishad and keeps it free of personal deities.
>

The first verse, invocation, of the 4th chapter of the Mandukya Karika is:

ज्ञानेनाकाशकल्पेन धर्मान्यो गगनोपमान् ।
ज्ञेयाभिन्नेन सम्बुद्धस्तं वन्दे द्विपदां वरम् ॥ १ ॥

For this  तं वन्दे द्विपदां वरम्  Shankara comments:  ईश्वरो यो
नारायणाख्यः, तं वन्दे अभिवादये । द्विपदां वरं द्विपदोपलक्षितानां पुरुषाणां
वरं प्रधानम् , पुरुषोत्तममित्यभिप्रायः ।For this Anandagiri's gloss
is:  आचार्यो
हि पुरा बदरिकाश्रमे नरनारायणाधिष्ठिते नारायणं भगवन्तमभिप्रेत्य तपो
महदतप्यत। ततो भगवानतिप्रसन्नस्तस्मै विद्यां प्रादादिति प्रसिद्धं
परमगुरुत्वं परमेश्वरस्येति भावः।

You may call "narayana'' to be the personal deity of Gaudapadacharya
addressing whom he did great penance and obtained this Advaita Vidya which
he expounded in the 4 chapters. You may also see the Bh.Gita 15th chapter
end which explains the Purushottama tattva as the Turiya, beyond the kshara
and akshara.

regards
subbu




> How does Shankara's approach in his Bhashyam differ from that of
> Gaudapada's approach or does it at all?
> Thank you.
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