BASIC CONCEPT OF ADVAITA

[Anand Hudli]

 Krishna Viswanathan wrote:

>hi listmembers,
>
>I have a basic doubt.
>
>I am curious to know what is the basic concept preached by ADVAITA.
>
>I would also like to know if there is any difference between the basic
>concept of ADVAITA and the teachings of  ADI SHANKARA and why this list
is
>so specific in discussing only the teaching of ADI SHANKARA and not
others
>who advocated ADVAITA.
>
>I know it is too basic and I apologise for this intrusion to the normal
>flow of discussion.

 As a reply to your question I am enclosing some relevant material
 from an article of mine, written a couple years ago. I am also
 including the advaita-paramparaa which might be useful information
 to some here. I believe the last paragraph answers your question
 on the basic concept(s) of advaita.

 Invocation:
  -----------

 sha.nkaraM sha.nkaraachaaryaM keshavaM baadaraayaNaM |
 suutrabhaashhyakR^itau vande bhagavantau punaH punaH ||

 I offer obeisances again and again to shrii Veda Vyaasa, the author
 of the Brahma suutras, who is none other than Lord VishNu,  and shrii
 Shankaraachaarya, the commentator on those suutras, who is none other
 than Lord Shiva.

 advaita guru-paramparaa:
 -----------------------

 nArAyaNaM padmabhuvaM vasishhThaM shaktiM cha tatputraparaasharaM
 cha |
 vyaasaM shukaM gauDapadaM mahAntaM govindayogiindramathaasya
 shishhyaM ||

 shrii sha.nkaraachaaryamathaasya padmapaadaM cha hastaamalakaM cha
 shishhyaM |
 taM toTakaM vaati.rkakaaramanyaanasmadguruun sa.ntatamaanato .asmi ||

 These two verses honor the advaita paramparaa. The names mentioned
 here, in order, are 1) Shriiman naaraayaNa, 2) Brahmaa,
 3) VasishhTha, 4) Shakti, 5) Paraashara, 6) Vyaasa, 7) Shuka,
 8) GauDapaada, 9) Govindapaada, 10) Shrii (Adi) Shankaraachaarya,
 and his four disciples, 11) Padmapaada, 12) Hastaamalaka, 13) toTaka,
 and 14) Sureshvara, and other Gurus.

 Sureshvara is also known as Vaarttikakaara because he wrote the
 famous vaarttika's on the BR^ihadaaraNyaka and taittiriiya
 upanishhads.

 ShriimannArAyaNa instructed the Vedas to Brahmaa. The Vedas have no
 author,and are hence called "apaurushheya." Veda Vyaasa authored the
 Brahma suutra and other texts, such as the Giitaa, to expound the
 knowledge of the Vedas.

 Jagadguru Adi Shankaraachaarya is a unique historical figure of India
 in that he combined within himself the characteristics of a poet,
 logician, an ardent devotee and a mystic and at the same time was the
 leading exponent of the system of philosophy called advaita. In his
 commentaries on the Prasthanatraya, he exhibited a rare faculty of
 relentlessly logical and concatenated argument and refutation, and
 such subtlety of reasoning as has been unsurpassed in the
 philosophical works of the world.

  His main teachings may be summarized as the affirmation of Samsaara
 or succession of births and deaths due to Karma and its significance,
 the realization of the essential relativity of phenomena in
 comparsion to the reality of the Supreme Self, the realization of
 that Self not being a mere theoretical exercise, but in the nature of
 the direct realization and actual experience taught by such
 upanishadic sayings  as, tattvamasi, "Thou art That."

Anand







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