[Advaita-l] Anya devata

[Murali S]

My two naya paisa on Sri Sankara Bhagavatpadas devotion to Vishnu.

There seems to be no reason to believe that Bhagavatpada was a sectarian
vaishnava.But tradition avers (even the Sringeri website) that Sri Krishna
was the family deity of the Acharyas family.In a sense even a Jnanavatara
like Dakshinamoorthy or Acharya  in a way occurs only to 'rescue' the lost
humanity.Even Sri Krishna's avatara was for this purpose apart from Divine
Leelas etc.

Since Sri V Subramanianji and Vidysankar(also I think) accept that a Jnani
can have a BMI and Vidyasankar has said that an Avataras Life on Earth is
like a superior Jiva and Bhagavatham asserts all doers of Good to Humanity
are Avataras,Sri Shankaras life is also like an Avatara.Apart from his work
on Bhashyas,he has 'minor' achievements like upholding Sanatana
Dharma,spiritual unity of India,'synthesis' many advaitins see him as an
'Avatara' as well.Why is it no conceivable that because of His
'lineage'(Krishna Bhakthi') and 'inclinations' towards Loka Kalyana that he
was 'attached' to Lord Vishnu.

We know from the life of Sri Abhinava Vidyathirtha Mahasvaminah(one of
Acharyals nama is Sri Nrisimha pada archakaya namaha.Ofcourse there are
other namas extolling his devotion to Amba and Chandramouliswara) that he
was particularly devoted to Lord Narasimha that Sri Chandrashekhara Bharathi
Mahasvaminaha(who was particularly devoted to Lord Shambu) jokingly extolled
to Sri Acharyal 'Oh! You are a Vaishnava!'

Hari Smaranam and infinite apologies to Acharyal talking about Them as if i
know them 'personally' while i have gleaned all this by reading books about
Acharyal.