[Advaita-l] Advaita can be misrepresented

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sun, Aug 30, 2020 at 12:57 PM Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Many people do not understand or do not wish to understand that Advaita
> endorses and validates bhakti and all the various worship traditions of
> India. Ishvara, the Cosmic Intelligent Being is accepted in Advaita.
>

In the Pancharatra adhikarana 2.2.42, while describing the Bhagavata
school, Shankara says:

 तेषां वासुदेवः परा प्रकृतिः, इतरे सङ्कर्षणादयः कार्यम् ; तमित्थंभूतं
परमेश्वरं भगवन्तमभिगमनोपादानेज्यास्वाध्याययोगैर्वर्षशतमिष्ट्वा क्षीणक्लेशो
भगवन्तमेव प्रतिपद्यत इति । तत्र यत्तावदुच्यते — योऽसौ नारायणः
परोऽव्यक्तात्प्रसिद्धः परमात्मा सर्वात्मा, स आत्मनात्मानमनेकधा
व्यूह्यावस्थित इति — तन्न निराक्रियते, ‘ स एकधा भवति त्रिधा भवति’ (छा. उ. ७
। २६ । २) इत्यादिश्रुतिभ्यः परमात्मनोऽनेकधाभावस्याधिगतत्वात् ; यदपि तस्य
भगवतोऽभिगमनादिलक्षणमाराधनमजस्रमनन्यचित्ततयाभिप्रेयते, तदपि न प्रतिषिध्यते,
श्रुतिस्मृत्योरीश्वरप्रणिधानस्य प्रसिद्धत्वात् ।

What is striking is Shankara's last sentence:  श्रुतिस्मृत्योरीश्वरप्रणिधानस्य
प्रसिद्धत्वात् ।   [Worship of Ishwara is extremely popular in the Shruti
and Smriti].  So, this is enough to show that those who say 'Advaita
discarded worship of Ishwara, etc.' are ignorant about facts.

As an aside, some misguided Vaishnavas point to the above lines of Shankara
to say:  In the immediately preceding Pashupata adhikaraNa Shankara never
said such glorious things about worship, contemplation, etc. Therefore,
these people concluded: Shankara approved only Vasudeva as Ishwara and
ignored/disapproved Pashupati as Ishwara.  What these people pathetically
missed is that most important last sentence of Shankara. For anyone, it is
obvious that the Shruti and Smriti have abundant content of Shiva worship
too apart from Vishnu worship. The reason Shankara did not say this in that
adhikarana is: that school admits of their Pashupati as only the nimitta
kaarana for the world.  So Shankara rejects that school saying such an
Ishwara can't be 'sarvajna/sarvashakti'.  This method has been adopted by
Sarvajnatman too in the Sankshepa Shariraka.  In fact even for the
Vaisheshika system, who also admit only nimitta karanatva for their
Ishwara, it is Shiva who is their Supreme God.

warm regards
subbu

They wrongly think that the importance of Advaita as the mainstream/core of
> the sanAtana dharma only came to the fore in the 19th century. That too
> ostensibly for awakening "Indian nationalism"!!
>
> Sample this...
>
>
> https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/others/sunday-read/who-is-a-hindu-what-they-dont-tell-you-about-advaita/amp_articleshow/77829600.cms
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