[Advaita-l] Advaita vedanta and Sri Adi Sankara

[Ram Garib]

Sri Sriram wrote:

> I donot agree with Sri Ramesh that Advaita Vedanta
> is different from Sri
> Sankara`s teachings.It is Sri Sankara who by writing
> the Brahma sutra
> bhashya established that our Vedas tell that Brahman
> alone is sathya and the
> world as we experience it is simply a mithya.Brahman
> and Jivathma are one
> and the same and that is there is no duality.This
> came to be known as
> Advaita philosophy.

This view will more likely be acceptable to followers
of rival schools than advaitins. Bhaskara at the very
beginning of his commentary on sutras accuses shankara
of this very thing: that shankara developed a new
philosophy and force fitted it back on sutras and
upanishads. Advaitins on the other hand take the view
that although an important link in advaita tradition,
shankara did not teach anything new. i.e. advaita
vedAnta is "sadAshiva samArambhAm.."

Moreover, taking advaita vedanta as teachings of
shankara only will be unfair to pre-shankara advaita
teachers esp. his illustrious grand teacher. In
addition, no advaitin will accept that bAdarAyaNa was
not an advaitin himself. Even shAndilya in his bhakti
sutra refers bAdarAyaNa as an advaitin, which shows
that the view about bAdarAyaNa's non-dualist
inclinations was prevalent as early as the sUtra
period, even though later commentators out and out
rejected this view.

With regards,
Ram Garib




		
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