[Advaita-l] [advaitin] “Shiva, not Vishnu, is supreme” vs Advaita

[V Subrahmanian]

Dear Putran ji,

Very well articulated. In fact

 Shankara has said in the BSB itself:
 Brahman/Ishwara can and does take on a form, to bless/help an aspirant in
his sadhana.: स्यात्परमेश्वरस्यापि इच्छावशात् मायामयं रूपं
साधकानुग्रहार्थम् । (1.1.vii.20) (Ishwara, out of compassion, takes on, by
His Maya, a form to grace the spiritual aspirant.//

The Uttara Khanda of Padma Purana has a beautiful reference to Panchayatana
puja. Bhagavan Krishna says the following to Satyabhama in the 88th Chapter
:
शैवाः सौराश्च गाणेशा वैष्णवाः शक्तिपूजकाः ।
मामेव प्राप्नुवंतीह वर्षांभः सागरं यथा ॥ ४३ ॥
एकोऽहं पंचधा जातः क्रीडयन्नामभिः किल ।
देवदत्तो यथा कश्चित्पुत्राद्याह्वाननामभिः ॥ ४४ ॥  ( 6.88.43-44)
Bhagvan says to Satyabhama , "As  rain-water reaches the ocean, so also,
the worshippers of Shiva,Surya,Ganesha,Vishnu and Shakti attain me. I am
one, yet manifest in five ways. As one Devadatta is addressed in many ways,
so also, I am called variously owing to my play. "

 It now comes to my light that the first line directly and the second line
implicitly form the basis for this shloka of Sri Madhusudana Saraswati in
his Gudhartha dipika commentary to the Bh.Gita:
                      शैवाः सौराश्च गाणेशा वैष्णवाः शक्तिपूजकाः।
भवन्ति यन्मयाः सर्वे सोहमस्मि परः शिवः।।3।
I am that Supreme Consciousness that Shaivas, Sauras, Gaaneshas, Vaishnavas
and Shaakta hold to be their upasya devataa. It is well known that the
Ishta Devataa of Madhusudana Saraswati is Balakrishna. So, we have the
authority of the Padma purana that the five sects such as Shaiva, Saura,
etc. are authentic.

warm regards
subbu

On Sat, Feb 5, 2022 at 7:49 PM putran M <putranm4 at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is a wonderful site
> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC16Lip5huUx63iFX-0J9t_w/featured (from
> Advaita-l) where Shiva is seen as the Supreme Godhead or Personality.
>