[Advaita-l] Shanmatha Sthapanam by Adhisankaracharya

[Hari R]

On Monday, January 20, 2025, Sangeerth P via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaskaram
>
> I was going through a book *Shankararum Vainavamum *(link
> <https://archive.org/details/sava-pki-ao>). This book is in Tamil by
> Puttur
> Krishnaswamy Iyengar swamy. There is a kandana given to this book by
> *Subramanian
> sir* in this
> <https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/sankararum-vai%
> E1%B9%87avamum-%E0%AE%93%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%B5%E0%
> AE%BF%E0%AE%AE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%A9%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D/>
> link.
> To Make the long story short, I am very new to Shankaracharya and I am
> eager to know about it. Kindly forgive me if the following questions look
> silly or wrong. I am seriously curious to know the answers. The following
> questions revolve mostly in and around who is the Saguna Brahman that
> Adhisankaraya is telling?
>
> 1. Can you please give me references* only *from* Prastanatraya bashya* of
> Adishankaracharya where he talks about *"him as Shanmatha stapakacharya"*
> and
> *"Siva-Vishnu Abedha". *Dont take references from any other grantas(as
> there are debates if the other grantas are written only by him or by his
> successors.)



You are asking for references only from Prasthanatraya bhashya, as there
are debates about the authorship of other grandhas. But let me tell you
there are all kinds of debates about the authorship of various texts. Many
debaters contend that none of the Puranas, as they are available now, could
have been written by Vyasacharya. Since Bhagavad Ramanuja who quotes
profusely from various Puranas, never quoted from Srimad Bhagavatham, many
debaters contend that this is a post-Ramanuja spurious text. As a Sri
Vaishnava, do you respect all those opinions?

>
> 2. If *Adisankaracharya* has even done the Shanmatha stapana why was *Surya
> *put into the list and not *Indra.* As in my limited knowledge, *Indra *is
> the head of all Devas. How to understand Surya as the supreme one if he is
> afraid of someone else (Beeshasma vatapavate ...)?


Indro Mayaabhih Pururoopa Iiyate is a line from the Vedas that
Sankaracharya quotes multiple times. Here he takes *Indra* for Saguna
Brahman. As for Surya as the Supreme One, I invite your attention to this
line in Chandogya Upanishad "Aadityo Brahma iti Aadeshah". Also Surya Aatma
Jagathasthasthushascha. Many more references could be cited, including the
celebrated Aaditya Hrudaya Stotram in the Valmiki Ramayanam, the
Yudhishtira sthuthi in the Mahabharatam, where Surya is extolled as the
Supreme Brahman.

>
> 3. In the book by *Iyengar Swamy* he even mentions Gita Bhasya of
> Sankaracharya(slokas 9-24,7-23) where Sankara tells that only by
> worshipping Krishna one can attain him. Even if one can argue that he is
> referring to the Supreme Brahman or some extrapolations like this. But why
> do you need to extrapolate or use certain grammatical gymnastics when the
> meaning is clearly evident that he refers to him? What is the necessity to
> extrapolate if Ramanuja/Madhva have taken the direct meaning of Krishna(or
> Vishnu) only for this sloka?
>
> Indeed Sankaracharya says that and more in the Upodghatam to the Gita
bhashyam. But if you read the Gita bhashyam thoroughly, you will find
profuse references to Krishna as the Saguna form of the Nirguna Brahmam.
Dont take any single slokam out of context.

4. As per one *Panini* sutra we can tell that Nara+Ayana=Naraayana, can
> indicate only one person then how can one understand that Adishankara is
> Shanmata stapanaacharya where he gives equal status for all the 6 gods as
> Saguna Brahman. Then how can he be a Shanmatha stapanacharya? Whenever he
> talks about *padam *he uses the term Vaishnava padam(eg:BG-15-4). Inspite
> of having several other synonymous words for Vyapti, why was Shankara using
> terms like Vishnu padam etc (which are Vaishnavaitic), even if you want to
> tell that vyapti is being talked about by vaishnava padam.
>
> The phrase Vishnoh Padam is Vedic, that was merely quoted by
Sankaracharya. Its association or more correctly appropriation by
Vaishnavism occurred in comparatively recent times in history.



> *If you are having some references to cite from Adhishankara kindly cite
> only from Prastanatraya bashyas of his work* and not even from any other
> grantas of Adisankaracharya as there is a lot of debates on if the other
> grantas are even written by him or the successors after him(not even
> from *Vishnu
> sahasranama Bashya* which Puttur swami has used)
>
> Already answered. If you start disregarding granthas whose authorship is
> questioned by some debators, then you will have to disregard the majority
> of works considered canonical in Vaishnavism.
>
> Regards
> Sangeerth P
> 8608658009
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