New member introduction: shrI Gerald Penn

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 10 Sep 1998, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:

>
> While this is generally true, there is more to it than meets the eye.
> Particularly, in terms of the *functions* of language, especially Vedic
> language. The Mimamsakas say that every sentence has enjoining or
> prohibition of action as its intention. Thus, "the forest is infested with
> wild animals" intends "do not travel through the forest in the night."
> Advaita Vedanta takes great exception to this stand. Especially in the
> Upanishads, sacred language has a purely revelatory role, and intends no
> action at all.

While this is an important issue between the Advaitins and Mimamsakas, in
the larger scheme of things it amounts to a mere quibble.  Shankaracharya
doesn't deny the validity of vidhis, just restricts their scope.  In other
epistemological topics such as the number and scope of pramanas and how
(and whether) meanings can be known, he completely follows the Mimamsaka
view.

> Among post-Sankaran authors, one should mention bhaTTojI dIkshita, the
> well known grammarian, who was also an Advaitin. He and his brother,
> rangojI, wrote quite a few texts on Advaita, which are, however, not very
> well known.

His major philosophical work is Vaiyakaranabhushanakarikas (commented on
in the famous Vaiyakarabhushanasara of Shri Kaunda Bhatt) which teaches
sphotavada which Advaita Vedanta rejects.  Do you know the names of any of
the Advaita works he wrote?  His son Bhanuji took Dashanami Sannyasa under
the name Swami Ramashrama.  And his grandson the famous Nagoji (Nagesh)
Bhatt wrote on Vedanta and Shrividya works.  But I didn't know that
Bhattoji Dikshit himself did.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>