[Advaita-l] Advaita can be misrepresented

[Kaushik Chevendra]

The present day scholars doubt the authenticity of vsn bhasya of shankara
but the dakshinamurty and sivananda lahari is considered to be authentic
work.

On Tue, 1 Sep 2020, 18:13 V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> 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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