Question

[Giri]

Sadananda wrote

> The Hare Krishanas think that Sankara preached advaita first and then in
> his later years he realized his mistake and wrote Bhajagovindam saying that
> surrender to Govinda is the ultimate.  This theory is being propagated in
> all ISKCON books.

        Where in the bhaja govindam does it say Surrender to Govinda is
the ultimate ? Of course, Shankara (*if he really wrote it*) urges one to
worship Govinda, Vishnu etc but nowhere does he say it is ultimate. That
would be conceding that the worship of Saguna Brahman is the *only* path.
Shankara never says that worship of Vishnu or any other god is wrong
(otherwise why would He initiate panchaayatana puujaa) but only against
the principle that the Atma is eternally different from Brahman.
        However, one is free to read the sanskrit text of bhaja govindam
http://www.geocities.com/RodeoDrive/1415/bhaja1.html
        and come to his/her conclusion. One should also pay attention to
verses like
        'Who are you ? Who am I ? From where do I come ? Who is my
mother, who is my father ? Ponder thus.' This looks like atma vichara to me.

**

Someone asked me how Hinduism views cloning ? How does karma affect the
person who is cloned to several persons ? I thought members of this list
were more knowledgable than me to answer this question.
        Since sages and Gods like Krishna have manifested themselves physically
at different places at the same time, maybe this issue has been addressed
before.

Namaste.