[Advaita-l] Info. on SS reqd.

[Stig Lundgren]

Dear Amuthan Arunkumar,

Unfortunately there is no website dedicated to Satchidanandendra Swamiji and 
his work. The Indiawebsite adress mentioned by you haven´t been working for 
quite some time, but it consisted of just a very small amount of 
information. The Culturalindia site did work recently, but I don´t know what 
has happened since. The excellent pages dedicated to Swamiji and his works 
where part of a more comprehensive site dealing with spiritual and cultural 
personalities and events in the Karnataka area. However, neither the 
Indiawebsite or the Culturalindia site where any official sites made by 
Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya (the organisation founded by Swamiji).

So far, there haven´t been any official websites released by Adhyatma 
Prakasha Karyalaya. So instead I would suggest you to contact any of the 
following two adresses:

Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya
Holenarsipur - 573 211
Hassan District, Karnataka,
India
Telephone: 08175-73820

Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya
No.68, 2nd Block
Thyagarajanagar
Bangalore-28
India
Telephone: 26765548


Here are some general information I wrote some time back: Swami 
Satchidanandendra Saraswati was born in 1880 in
Chikkamagalur, Karnataka state. His name prior to sannyasa was Yellambalase 
Subbaraya Sharma. In his youth he studied Vedanta for the noted teacher and 
vedantin K. A. Krishnaswamy Iyer - author of the fairly well known and (in 
my opinion) brilliant book "Vedanta or the Science of Reality". The young 
Subbaraya Sharma also studied Vedanta under the guidance of Virupaksha 
Shastri, the vidyaguru of the soon-to-be Sringeri Sankaracharya Swami 
Chandrasekhara Bharati. In 1910 Subbaraya Sharma got mantra diksha and 
blessings from the then Sringeri Sankaracharya Satchidananda Shivabhinava 
Nrisimha Bharati.

Perhaps the works of Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati could be labeled as 
"critical traditionalism". While in every sense
staying within the orthodox Vedantic tradition as a sannyasi and
scholar of Vedanta, he questioned the additions to the Vedantic
tradition made after the days of Gaudapada, Adi Shankara and
Sureshvara. He put the attention on the original teachings of
these three classical acharyas, and pointed out the doctrinal
additions made by later authors and teachers within the
tradition. Not surprisingly, this sometimes led to debates and
polemics with scholars representing the conventional view on
Advaita Vedanta. But he was held in high esteem by the
contemporary Shankaracharyas of Sringeri and Kanchi Kamakoti. For instance, 
in 1961 the Kanchi Paramacharya Swami Chandrasekharendra Saraswati invited 
Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati to Tamil Nadu, and he described his guest 
as "a living example of a sage who had lived all his life steeped in 
contemplation on the paramartha." In 1979 the Kanchi Paramacharya promted 
and persuaded the devotees of Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati to celebrate 
his centenary (i.e. in 1980). Kanchi Paramacharya also referred to 
Satchidanandendra Swamiji "as a shrotriya (an adept well-versed in the 
traditonal method of teaching as per the Shrutis and Upanishads) and a 
Brahmanishtha (one who is rooted in Brahman, the Absolute Transcendental 
Reality i.e. a Realized Soul) in the true sense of the two epithets of a 
Bramajnani as stipulated in Mundakopanishad." (cited from D. B. Gangolli, 
"Sri Satchidanandendra Saraswati Swamiji")

Regarding the well-known book "The Method of Vedanta" (Swamiji´s major 
opus), this could perhaps be of interest: Due to Swami Satchidanandendra 
Saraswati´s debates with some pandits connected to Sringeri Peetham, the 
Sringeri
Sankaracharya Swami Abhinava Vidyatirtha decided to visit
Satchidanandendra Swamiji in Holenarsipur. Obviously the
Sankaracharya had studied the manuscript to "The Method of
Vedanta" (Vedanta Prakriya Pratyabhijna). After reading it, he
offered financial help to publish the book. He said to
Satchidanandendra Swamiji: "By my personal visit many of my
doubts have been solved. Having dedicated your whole life for the 
propagation of Sankara Siddhanta, you are a true devotee indeed."

Swamiji attained mahasamadhi in Bangalore, 1975.

Warmest regards
Stig Lundgren





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Amuthan Arunkumar R" <aparyap at yahoo.co.in>
To: <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 03, 2005 8:39 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Info. on SS reqd.


> namo nArAyaNAya!
>
> dear list members,
>
> can someone provide me an online link to SrI
> satchidAnandendra sarasvatI's biography, works, etc.?
>
> when i searched the archives, two web-pages were
> mentioned (http://www.culturalindia.com/karya.html and
> www.indiawebsites.com/karyalaya.htm), but both of them
> don't seem to work.