[Advaita-l] paJNchAyatana pUja

[Annapureddy Siddhartha Reddy]

praNAM all,
        I was reading the following article on paJNchAyatana pUja:
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/panchayatana_puja.htm
and I had a few questions:

-- The article says "We believe it was established by Shankaracharya
himself." Are there any differences over the issue. Is this supposed to have
been the tradition in AmnAya maThas? Are there no written records of
shaN^karAchArya instituting this practice?

-- The mAyA paJNchakaM in the article seems to state that brahma, viShNu,
shiva are non-different from Ishvara (saguNa brahma). Is this the advaita
vEdAntic position in the vyavahArika world that all the three Gods are
different names of the same entity? How about dEvI, gaNEsha, sUrya etc.? Are
they also supposed to be the same entity (Ishvara) being assigned a
different name? Or are they supposed to be different entities with equal
powers (in which case some of them must be different from Ishvara, and could
not have equal powers)? Or is the idea that when one of the deities is
worshipped, the nirguNa brahma in that deity is being worshipped?

-- Can the ishTa dEvata be anybody? For example, is Jesus Christ acceptable?


Thanks.

A.Siddhartha.