[Advaita-l] PARAMARTHIKA AND VYAVAHARIKA SATYAM

[Siva Senani Nori]

Sri Sunil Bhattacharjya and Sri Kale Balkrishna are right; Srimanmadhvacharya indeed wrote 'commentaries' on the Upanishads. My apologies for giving out incorrect information.

The context for my statement is this: Sri Madhva's commentaries are very terse and differ from the classical style of commentary. Sri Madhva only points out the critical aspects and does not explain every word and every aspect. This is similar to, in my limited exposure, to the style of Abhinava Gupta's commentary on Gita. Study of such commentaries requires a thorough mastery of the original and its 'usual' interpretations or a Guru who can provide the background knowledge. 

When one is first introduced to Vedanta's basic texts - the Upanishads, even when one is studying in the presence of a Guru, the completeness of Sri Sankaracharya's commentaries are in stark contrast to the terse style of Sri Madhva. While one readily appreciates the difference in the contextual realities at the time of composition of these two commentaries, this is reason I was left with an impression that Sri Sankara's commentaries are the only works available. 

A natural consequence of the terseness of Sri Madhva's style is the later explanatory works like sub-commentaries and glosses, which Sri Balakrishna referred to as 'commentaries' by other acharyas.

It is interesting to note that even the publication of Sri Madhva's commentary on Isavasyopanishad at dvaita.org includes the commentary of Sri Sankara since "the bhashya of Sri Sankara is frequently referred to and criticized by Madhva's commentators".

I hope the main point, that the interpretation of Vedic knowledge as a whole is advaitic, is not missed due to my lazy mistake of not acknowledging the commentaries of Sri Madhva.

Regards
Senani



________________________________
From: Kale Balkrishna <kale1972 at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Thu, February 18, 2010 11:11:33 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] PARAMARTHIKA AND VYAVAHARIKA SATYAM

Namaskar Senaniji,

Not only Sri Madhvacharya but there are many other YATI's in Parampara who
wrote commenteries on Upanishads. Please find the the list of few of them.

Sri Jayateertha.
Sri Raghottama Teertha,
Sri Vadiraja Teertha,
Sri Raghavendra Teertha,
Sri Vijayeendra Teertha,
Sri Satyabodha Teertharu,
Sri Satyavrata Teertha,
Sri Satyasandha Tteertha
Sri Dhreendra Teertha
Sri Vedeshateertha
Sri Yadavararu

and many more....

-- 
हरये नमः

Kale Balkrishna
Mobile : +91-9849042501
Slogan of the day : Please do Sandhyavandane Daily.

नारायणाय परिपूर्ण गुणार्णवाय विश्वोदय स्थितिलयो नियति प्रदाय ग्न्यान प्रदाय
विभुदा सरसौख्या दुख सत्कारणाय  वितताय नमो नमस्ते



On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 8:33 PM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Senaniji,
> Sorry to have to point out that Shri Madhvacharya did write commentaries on
> Upanishads.
> Regards,
> Sunil K. Bhattachyarjya
>
> --- On Wed, 2/17/10, Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> From: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] PARAMARTHIKA AND VYAVAHARIKA SATYAM
> To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 12:34 AM
>
> And, to answer the main point about the philosophy of Sayanacharya, it is
> Advaita Vedanta. Sayancharya, the person, is the brother of Madhava, who
> later became Vidyaranya the peeThaadhipati of Sringeri math in 14th century
> and the one who was instrumental in the establishment of the Vijayanagar
> empire. However the author Sayanacharya seems to be more than one person,
> and many believe that Sayana himself, Madhava and their students wrote the
> many works that are attributed to Sayanacharya. While the works attribute to
> this family are many (including the madhaveeya Sankaravijayam [definitely
> not the work of brothers in my opinion], madhaveeya dhaatuvritti etc.;
> Sayana is even said to have given the speed of light!), the book
> sarvasiddhantasangrah clearly shows that they considered advaitic
> interpretation of vedanta as the highest truth. To my knowledge, nobody
> disputes that Sayanacharya was an advaitin.
>
> It might be pertinent to note a few points here:
>
> 1. Of the three prasthanas of daSopanishads, BrahmasUtrAs and Geetaa the
> last two have many commentaries; the Gita continues to inspire even modern
> leaders like Tilak and Gandhi to give their interpretation, but the
> 'advaitic' interpretation of Upanishads - if you want to use such a term -
> is the main commentary on Vedas as such.
>
> 2. Neither Sri Ramanujaachaarya nor Srimanmadhvaachaarya wrote commentaries
> on the Upanishads. To my knowledge, after the time of Vedanta Desika, one
> Ragaramanujachaarya first wrote a viSishTaadvaitic commentary on the
> Upanishads, and the portion where we studied this along with Sankaracharya's
> bhashya, the bulk of it (Rangaramanujachaya's bhashya) did not differ from
> Bhagavatpaada's bhashya. In places like tattvamasi or the story of two
> birds, we can see substantial difference.
>
> Regards
> Senani
>
>
> Thank you Venkat for drawing my attention to the mistake I made.
>
> Dear Krunal ji,
>
> Sayanacharya wrote commentaries to the Four Veda-s. Here is a short
> write-up on him:
>
> http://www.hindujagruti.org/hinduism/knowledge/index.php?print/id:206
>
> // 4. Sayanacharya
>
> If anyone has written a commentary on the Vedas after Yaskacharya it
> is none other than Sayanacharya. It is because of which that the
> latter is glorified everywhere. He has written commentaries on all the
> Vedas. In the preface to the Taittiriya Sanhita when indicating as to
> the Veda about which He wrote the commentary initially, He says, “The
> Yajurveda is like a wall and the pictures drawn on it represent the
> Rugveda and the Samaveda. That is precisely why I am discussing the
> Yajurveda first.” When writing a commentary on every branch of the
> Veda He does it in different style. He also has commentaries on the
> Shatapatha, Aitareya, Taittiriya and all the Braahmana holy texts of
> the Samaveda to His credit.
>
> Commentators who preceded Sayanacharya are Bhattabhaskarmishra,
> Venkatmadhav, etc. and those who followed Him are ones like Uvvat and
> Mahidhar. Nevertheless they have written commentaries on any one
> Vedasanhita, all of them being in Sanskrut and focusing on the central
> theme of sacrificial fires (yadnya) in the Vedas.’(4)    //
>
> The Vedic philosophy is that which takes man step by step to the
> ultimate realization of his Atman that is none other than Brahman.
> The Vedanta is that portion of the Vedic literature where the higher
> goal, purushArtha, moksha is discussed primarily.  The portion I had
> quoted in the Article is occurring in this part of the Veda and hence
> you see Sayanacharya commenting the way he did.
>
> I apologise for answering a question that you did not ask.
>
> Regards,
> subrahmanian.v
>
>
>
> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Venkata Subramanian
> <venkat_advaita at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > sorry Subramamanian.  I think Krunal is asking about Sayanacharya; not
> Bhagavat Pada Acharyal.
> >
> > Thanks & Regards,
> > Venkat.
> >
> > Sadgurubhyo Namah.
> >
> > --- On Wed, 17/2/10, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> > Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] PARAMARTHIKA AND VYAVAHARIKA SATYAM
> > To: makwanakb at googlemail.com, "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> > Date: Wednesday, 17 February, 2010, 12:09 PM
> >
> >
> > Namaste Krunal ji,
> >
> > Thank you for your words of appreciation.
> >
> > Shankaracharya propagated the Vedanta philosophy.  Since it is
> > essentially Advaitic in nature, it became popular by this name.  Even
> > to this day, after several centuries of His advent, by the term
> > 'Vedanta' only 'Advaita' is brought up to one's mind.  Thus Vedanta,
> > Advaita and Shankara have become synonyms.
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Om Tat Sat
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 11:46 PM,  <makwanakb at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >> Jai Siya Ram
> >>
> >> Subrahmanianji,
> >>
> >> An excellent and enlightening article on the realities by our
> scriptures.
> >>
> >> Thank you for sharing this with us.
> >>
> >> On a side note, what philosophy did Sayanacharya propogate? Was he of
> the philosophy of Advaita?
> >>
> >> Krunal
> >> Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> > http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
> >
> > To unsubscribe or change your options:
> > http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> >
> > For assistance, contact:
> > listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> >
> >
> >
> >      The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage.
> http://in.yahoo.com/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> > http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
> >
> > To unsubscribe or change your options:
> > http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> >
> > For assistance, contact:
> > listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 12:35:51 PM
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] PARAMARTHIKA AND VYAVAHARIKA SATYAM
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>
_______________________________________________
Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita

To unsubscribe or change your options:
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l

For assistance, contact:
listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org