[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Shankaracharya merges Vyavaharika Satta into Pratibhasika Satta in the Gita bhashya

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

There were two slips in the last mail on this subject. Kindly do the
correct reading as follows:

*Please read *

*(i) *
*'Vidyatirtha'*

*corrected as: *
*'Bharati Krishna Tirtha',*

*(ii) *
*'As regards Swami Vidyashankra Tirtha, he continued to stay in Kanchipuram
(the Dakshina-kashi) and in his old age he left for Varanasi(Kashi) for
good.'*

*corrected as: *


*'As regards Swami Vidyashankra Tirtha, he continued to stay in Kanchipuram
(the Dakshina-kashi) and in his old age he left for the Himalayas and took
his samadh in the Dattatreya Guha (cave).' *

Thanking you

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya



On Sun, Jun 18, 2023 at 9:52 AM sunil bhattacharjya <
skbhattacharjya at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear friends
>
> The compound word 'Jaganmithya' (Jagat-Mithya) was used in Upanishad, and
> it means anitya. Lord Krishna told clearly in a verse, which says*:* what
> was there in the past and what will be there in future is not there at
> present and that shows what is there today is as good as not there. This is
> Vyavaharika Satya and is not called Vyavaharika Mithya. In Mahabharata,
> Yudhisthira tried to fool Drona (albeit reluctantly) by saying "Ashvatthama
> hata iti gaja" and that was a vyavaharika asatya and for that he was given
> appropriate punishment in course of time.
>
> That is the great vedic culture we inherited, where Truth is Dharma.  The
> historical truths also must be equally respected. For example, towards the
> end of the 18th century AD, there was a war between the armies led by Hyder
> Ali and Tipu against the British led army near Kanchipuram, and within a
> decade, the Kanchipuram Math authorities left the disturbed area of
> Kanchipuram and moved to the temple city of Kumbhakonam towards the south
> and the math was shifted back  to Kanchipuram in the 19th century, when the
> situation in Kanchipuram returned to normalcy. But there are many ignorant
> advaitins, who distrust this truth.
>
> Similarly, when Malik Kafur, the general of Alauddin Khilji attacked
> Karnataka the beginning of the 14th century AD, the attackers  did not
> spare the original Shringeri math at the confluence of the holy rivers
> Bhadra and Tunga in Kudali in the Shimoga district. The attackers
> devastated the establishment and broke the original wooden idol of mother
> Sharada Devi and the Mathadhipati Swami Vidyashankara Tirtha had to save
> his life by running away to Kanchipuram, and the broad-minded authorities
> of the Kanchipuaram Math welcomed him and gave him the status of a
> mathadhipati. To my knowledge, that is why the Guru-parampara of the
> Kanchipuram Math mentions two mathadhipatis (including the name of Swani
> Vidyashankara Tirtha) in the 14th century AD. In my humble opinion, all
> advaitins following Adi Shankara, should be proud of this rare
> fellow-feeling showed by the Kanchi Kamakoti math, where Adi Shankara too
> spen this last days. Swami Vidyatirtha and Swami Vidyaranya, during their
> younger days, had to go to Swami Vidyashankara tirtha in Kanchipuram for
> their training, and thereafter Swami Vidyatirtha returned to
> Kudali-Shringeri Math as the mathadhipati.  He was followed by Swami
> Vidyaranya, as the mathadhipati.  As regards Swami Vidyashankra Tirtha, he
> continued to stay in Kanchipuram (the Dakshina-kashi) and in his old age he
> left for Varanasi(Kashi) for good.
>
> Later on, with the initiative from swami Vidyatirtha and Swami Vidyaranya
> and the liberal grants from the Vijayanagara king, a new math was
> established in New Shringeri at the bank of the river Tunga in the
> Chikkamagaluru district, which is at a distance of about 100 KM from the
> original Kudali Shringeri math in the Shimoga district of Karnataka.  A
> temple dedicated to Swami Vidyashankara tirtha was erected in the New
> shringeri math  in the Chikkamagaluru district. At a much later date a
> temple dedicated to  Swami Vidyashankara tirtha was erected in the original
> Kudali Shringeri math also. This is the truth about the great history of
> the Shringeri  math and all Advaitin truth - lovers should be proud of the
> great historical link between the Kanchi Kamakoti math and the two
> Shringeri maths.
>
> If any advaitin friend has any question on the above, please don't
> hesitate to question me, either publicly or personally.
>
> 'TRUTH IS DHARMA'
> My 2 cents
> Sunil Kumar Bhattacharjya
>
> On Sat, Jun 17, 2023 at 11:41 PM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> In the commentary for BG 2.16 Shankara says:
>>
>>  सर्वत्र बुद्धिद्वयोपलब्धेः, सद्बुद्धिरसद्बुद्धिरिति ।
>> यद्विषया बुद्धिर्न व्यभिचरति, तत् सत् ; यद्विषया व्यभिचरति, तदसत् ; इति सदसद्विभागे बुद्धितन्त्रे स्थिते, सर्वत्र द्वे बुद्धी सर्वैरुपलभ्येते समानाधिकरणे न नीलोत्पलवत् , सन् घटः, सन् पटः, सन् हस्ती इति ।
>>
>> All perceptions have two aspects: one, the unchanging one and the other
>> is the changing one, for example 'pot is', 'cloth is', 'elephant is'. Of
>> these two the unchanging one is Sat, Brahman and the changing one is asat,
>> mithya.
>>
>> Having said this, he concludes the teaching by saying:
>>
>> एकाधिकरणत्वं घटादिविशेष्याभावे न युक्तमिति चेत् , न ;
>> ‘इदमुदकम्’ इति मरीच्यादौ अन्यतराभावेऽपि सामानाधिकरण्यदर्शनात् ॥
>>
>> An objection: It is illogical to say that two aspects are there in a
>> perception ...In reply to this Shankara cites the example of the perception
>> of mirage water where even though there is no water, yet the perception is
>> of the nature 'this is water' where the 'this' aspect is real and the
>> 'water' aspect is unreal.
>>
>> Shankara says this is the teaching for Arjuna from this verse 2.16:
>>
>>
>> त्वमपि तत्त्वदर्शिनां दृष्टिमाश्रित्य शोकं मोहं च हित्वा शीतोष्णादीनि नियतानियतरूपाणि द्वन्द्वानि ‘विकारोऽयमसन्नेव मरीचिजलवन्मिथ्यावभासते’ इति मनसि निश्चित्य तितिक्षस्व इत्यभिप्रायः ॥
>>
>> /Therefore, you too, by adopting the vision of the men of realization and
>> giving up sorrow and delusion, forbear the dualities, heat, cold, etc. --
>> some of which are definite in their nature, and others inconstant --,
>> mentally being convinced that this (phenomenal world) is changeful, verily
>> unreal and appears falsely like water in a mirage. This is the idea.//
>>
>> Thus for the same verse, in the commentary Shankaracharya starts off with
>> vyavaharikta Satya example of pot, cloth and elephant and concludes the
>> commentary citing the Pratibhasika Satya analogy of mirage water.  Shankara
>> has thereby dovetails the vayavaharika into the pratibhasika.
>>
>> Thus for Shankara the world is of the nature of pratibhasika satya.
>>
>> Om Tat Sat
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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