[Advaita-l] Logic and shastra

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear Vyasji,

Namaskar,

There are two schools of thought.

One school thinks that Buddha was anti-veda.

The other school considers it a sweeping statement
indeed. Buddha himself said that he was not saying
anything new. He said that he was rediscovering what
the old seers (I think he meant the Vedic seers) said.
He did not like his contemporary brahmins claim as if
they had hotline to God, without having any spiritual
experience personally. Just reading the shastra and
knowing how to perform the rituals was not
spirituality. Even Mundaka Upanishad also clearly
gives a second place to the Vedas in that way.It is
because of this Dr. adhakrishnan called Buddha a
reformer of Buddhism. In Dhammapada a whole chapter is
devoted to Brahmins and we can see there what a true
bramin should be, according to Buddha. Buddha did not
denounce Brahminism as such . What he wanted was to
clean up the debris of the Brahminism of his time. My
guess is Adi Sankaracharya could appreciate Buddha. He
has not said anything against Buddha. Many believe
that the Brahmasutra bhashya was written by Abhinava
Sankara, as he mentions the views of 5th and 6th
century Buddhist writers. Today after the Letters of
Max Muller from the British archives became available,
historians are that chronology of Indian history,
suggested by Max Muller and followed by all
historians, is to be revised. This puts the the date
of birth of Adi Sankaracharya to an earlier date. Till
the early nineteenth century even the Sringeri Matha
said that Adi Sankara was born in 44  BC.

Regards

Sunil Bhattacharjya


--- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at braincells.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, sunil bhattacharjya wrote:
> 
> > Was not Adi Sankaracharya called
> > praschanna Buddha (concealed Buddha)?
> 
> Only by his enemies.  He himself would have been
> horrified by such a name 
> as he considered Buddhism to be a vile heresy.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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