[Advaita-l] RE: On the parakAyapraveSa legend about Sankara

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

praNAms Sri RamaKrishna Balasubramanian prabhuji
Hare Krishna

RB prabhuji:

The point is that the debate was conducted to establish the advaita
siddhaanta, since maNDana and the mImA.msakas had captured the
intellects of the people. Now the very avatara of Sankara was to
re-establish advaita, and so obviously he approached maNDana, right
after kumArila bhaTTa. The agreement was that whoever lost would
convert to the other persons Ashrama.

bhaskar :

Yes, shankara's intention was to refute the strong hold of pUrva mImAmsakas
that Karma is pradhAna...In the dialogues with maNdana, shankara not even
hinted that he is there to prove his practical mastery over all subjects.
The *agenda* of the debate was quite clear when shankara asked *vAda
bhiksha* with maNdana.

RB prabhuji :

Ubhayabhaarati skilfully employed a loophole in the rules for debate to
trap Shankara. You may say these are not important topics (kAma-shAstra),
but the technical
rules for debate are what they are, and not what you or I wish them to be.

bhaskar :

Nevertheless, kAma shAstra is the subject which is totally irrelevant when
you consider the *main purpose* behind the debate.  Moreover, it was
shankara who first forced ubhayabhArati ( *ambA* calls sometime by the
author of SD)to stay on earth through some navadurga vashIkaraNA
maNtra...Debating with shankara & trapping him in that were not at all her
pre-meditated plan to exploit the loophole in the rules of debate...Hope
you are aware of exact situation narrated by author of MSD here.  However,
it is interesting to note that in another biography it is said that it was
shankara who first invited ubhayabhArati to debate with him!!!

RB prabhuji :

After the parakAyapravesha, the queen realizes that there is something
fishy, since the king is very detached. Note that this shows that
shankara in the midst of the worldly happenings still retains his
detatched state, and that is very apparent to the queen.

bhaskar :

Had it been that case, if shankara in amaruka's body was so detached then
there was no business for shankara's disciples to wake him up from the
immersed state of sexuality.  I think author of SD spoiled the whole spirit
of yati dharma here by narrating the shankara's passionate involvement in
sexuality.  Hope you are aware how elaborately author of SD described
shankara's enjoyment in amaruka's body & how his disciples struggled to
drag him out of this mess!!!

RB prabhuji:

And how do you know this is the case, when the sampradaaya explicitly
believes otherwise? There is no connflict between what he wrote in the
bhAshya and mAdhavIyam.

bhaskar :

Are you sure about it??  if yes, kindly clarify how do you reconcile
*akruta abhyAgama* & *kruta praNAsha* theory (which shankara elaborates
deals in sUtra bhAshya) with that of his explanation to saraswati's
*akAshavANi* before sarvajna pITAvarOhaNa??

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar