[Advaita-l] Fwd: 'Apararka' - the 12th Century CE Advaitin

[V Subrahmanian]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 9:59 PM
Subject: 'Apararka' - the 12th Century CE Advaitin
To: Advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com>


Sharing a post by Sri Natraj Maneshinde in FB:


Maharaj Aparaditya Shilahara ~ the Smaarta Maratha king of Konkan
=========================

Maharaj Aparaditya ( 1170 - 1197 CE) of the Shilahara Vamsha was well known
for his Shastric learning. He has authored a commentary on Yagnavalkya
Smriti by name Apararka tika. It is said that the fame of this commentary
had  reached even Kashmir where the scholars used it as a standard law book.

Though Maharaj Aparaditya hailed from a Shahnau-kuli Kshatriya Maratha
family, he was a Smaarta by faith. The mangalacharana shloka-s of his tika
make it amply clear that he was an Advaitin.

In the shloka-s attached below, Maharaj offers his namaskara-s to the
Parabrahman who creates, sustains and destroys the Jagat.

In the next shloka, Maharaj identifies the Parabrahman  with the non-dual
Atman which is shuddha bodha, abhaya, Sukha-sat-svabhava, ananta and aja.
This non-dual Atman itself manifests as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva at the
time of creation, sustenance and dissolution of Jagat.

It is interesting to note that Maharaj beholds no difference between the
trimurti-s and has no qualms in establishing them as non-different from the
Supreme Non-dual Atman. Thus, we find an example of an ancient Maratha king
who subscribed to the tenets of Smaarta Advaita Sampradaya.

One can see the same principle in the works of Vartikakara Bhagavan
Sureshvaracharya as well.

स्वतस्त्वकरणोऽदेहो निर्गुणोऽभेद एव च ।
चिदाभासस्वमोहोत्थकार्यैस्तद्वानिवेक्ष्यते ॥३७॥
चतुर्धा प्रविभज्यैनं सात्वताः पर्युपासते ।
तथा हैरण्यगर्भीयास्तथा पाशुपतादयः ॥३८॥ ( Vartika on Brihad.Up 3.7)
[By itself, the antaryāmi, is without any organs, bodiless, nirguna, with
no difference whatever. Owing
to the delusion that one has organs, body, etc. the antaryāmi appears to be
one endowed with body, etc.]
[This one do the Sattvatas worship after having divided him into four
parts, similarly (do the) worshipers of Hiranyagarbha and similarly, the
Pasupatas and others.]

यः पृथिव्यामितीशोऽसावन्तर्यामी जगद्गुरुः ।
हरिर्ब्रह्मा पिनाकीति बहुधैकोऽपि गीयते ॥ ३७७ ॥ ( Vartika on Brihad.Up 1.4)

[The Br.Up. ‘he who, stationed in the pṛthvī devatā impels the
mind-body-organs of that devatā….’ who is the antaryāmī, jagadguru, even
though one, is variously spoken of as Hari, Brahmā and Pinākī (Śiva).]

View the image in Advaitin Google group post on the same topic.