[Advaita-l] Book review: Shri Shri Satchidanandendra Sarasvati (Life History & His Contributions to Shankara Vedanta

[balu davey]

Respected Savitriji,
Pranams. I Thank your goodselves for the elaborate reply. Soon I shall
visit the spot. My Gurunath Sri.vidyananda Giri Swami (My father in
His poorvasrama) of Gnanananda Tapovanam Tirukoilur T.N used to talk
in praise of SSS often.
With regards
Balakrishna Davey
2008/12/10 savithri devaraj <savithri_devaraj at yahoo.com>:
> Namaste Sri Davey -
>
> I believe the fastest way to visit Holenarasipur from Chennai is to go to Bangalore, and then take transport towards Mangalore. It is a town close to Hassan or Chennarayapatna. So if you take buses, you would get off at either of these, and take frequent local buses. It is less than an hour from Hassan and less than half hour from Chennarayapatna. There are direct buses from Bangalore, but these may be slow. Taking an express bus to Chennarayapatna or Hassan and then taking local frequent buses is better.
>
> Trains are a good alternative, but may take a little longer. You will have to go from Bangalore to Mysore, and all trains towards Mangalore/Arasikere/Hassan stop at Holenarasipur.
>
> Here is the excerpt from wikipedia regading its location.
>
> Holenarsipura is on a state highway between Mysore and Hassan and on another state highway between Somavarpete and Bangalore. Holenarsipura is connected to the rest of Karnataka and India by broad gauge railway. It is 32 km from Hassan, 90 km from Mysore and 175 km from Bangalore.
>
> Here are the details if you like to contact them at
> Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya
> Holenarasipura,
> Hassan Dist.-573211
> Karnataka, India
> Phone No.91-8175-273820.
> Email:secretary at adhyatmaprakasha.org
>
> or at
>
> Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya
> #68, APK road, 2nd block,
> Thyagarajanagara,
> Bangalore-560028
> Karnataka, India
> Phone No.91-80-26765548
>
> Hope this helps,
> Regards,
> Savithri
> --- On Tue, 12/9/08, balu davey <baludavey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: balu davey <baludavey at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Book review: Shri Shri Satchidanandendra Sarasvati (Life History & His Contributions to Shankara Vedanta)
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 9:39 PM
>
> I request more information about Holenarasipur and how to approach it
> from Chennai
> with regards
> Balakrishna Davey
> 2008/12/9 Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>:
>> It is our ancient custom to recount the biographies of our saints and
> scholars.
>> In the tales of the itihasa and puranas or the digvijaya of Shankaracharya
> we
>> can see the practical application of the theories of the shastras.  We
> mustn't
>> think that the heroes of sanatana dharma belong solely in the legendary
> past
>> for even today Punya Bharat is the home to sages of the greatest
> magnitude. One
>> such luminary was Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati of Karnataka.
> (1880-1975)
>> The story of his life and great deeds was written in Kannada by Shri
>> Lakshminrsimha Murti, a disciple, under the title Gurucharitamrita.  Now
> thanks
>> to our list member Shrimati Savitri Devaraj, it is available to English
>> speakers as well.  She was kind enough to send me a copy and here are my
>> thoughts about it.
>>
>> Y. Subbaraya was born in a typical Brahmana family of that time.  His
> parents
>> though not great scholars themselves were faithful astikas and did their
> duties
>> dilligently. And the village Yellambalase where they lived though small
> and off
>> the beaten track was filled with pious people. It was an environment that
>> instilled a devotion to dharma and jnana in young Subbaraya that would
> last a
>> lifetime.  This was a very uplifting part of the book for me.  We see the
> boy
>> growing into a young man and steadily increasing in Vedantic knowledge.
> From
>> the beginning, he did not just repeat what he had learnt but thought
>> analytically about each topic.
>>
>> Although he supported himself by various teaching jobs, Vedanta continued
> to
>> remain Subbarayas main interest and in 1920, he formed the Adhyatma
> Prakasha
>> Karyalaya as a vehicle to spread knowledge about Shankaracharyas teachings
> and
>> his own views on the same. His fluency in Sanskrit, Kannada, and English
> led
>> him to become a prolific author.  This book gives useful information on
> the
>> title, contents, and publication dates of his many works and the various
>> dharmic activities of the Karyalaya.
>>
>> In 1948, Y. Subbaraya took sannyasa with the name Swami Satchidanandendra
>> Saraswati.  The description of this event in this book reminds us that
> Vedanta
>> cannot remain a matter of books.  It has to be put into practice with
> vairagya.
>>
>> Swamijis critical approach (combined with the utmost reverence. He did not
> make
>> controversy for its own sake.) led him to conclude that the two major
> lines of
>> interpretation of Shankaracharyas thought, the bhamati and vivarana
> schools
>> unnecessarily complicated and even obscured the teachings of Advaita
> Vedanta.
>> He felt sadhakas should concentrate on the bhashyas alone and only turn to
>> other works if absolutely needed.  As you can expect this was contested by
> more
>> conservative scholars.  Personally, at this point I don't know if I
> would agree
>> with Swamiji.  However it is clear that he was no deviationist and his
> ideas
>> are well within the bounds of traditional Advaita Vedanta and were
> accepted as
>> such by the vidvans. The book explains the nature of the controversy and
> tells
>> of some of the participants but I would have liked more information.
> Happily,
>> the book also contains English excerpts from one of Swamijis Sanskrit
> works on
>> the topic called vedantavidvadghosti ("Vedantins Meet")  This
> will give the
>> reader an introduction to his style and salient arguments.
>>
>> By the time Swamiji attained mahasamadhi in 1975, he and his organization
>> (which is still going strong today) were responsible for introducing the
>> thought of Shankaracharya to literally thousands of people.  By
> introducing new
>> readers to the life and teachings of this great soul, I am sure this book
> will
>> help increase that number further still.
>>
>> "Shri Shri Satchidanandendra Sarasvati (Life History &  His
> Contributions to
>> Shankara Vedanta)" (294 pages) is available for Rs.150 (India) or
> $5(foreign)
>> from Adhyatma Prakasha Karyalaya Holenarasipur 573 211 India.
>>
>> --
>> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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>
>
> --
> baludavey
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-- 
baludavey