[Advaita-l] Questions regarding Adwaita vedanta.

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 8:32 PM, srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in> wrote:

> Pranams.
> I am following with interest the Emails on the above topic.
> There was one Email that in Padma Purana it is said that one must giveup
> one's duty,whereas Shankara in his Gita Bhashya says,one must perform
> one's duty as advised by Krishna to Arjuna.
>
> It must be remembered that In the Bhagawadgita Arjuna is in delusion,and
> asks Krishna whether Sanyasa has to be taken rather than performing his
> duty.As against this confusion Krishna says:Svadharme nidhanam sreyah!
> But this does not mean that Karma is greater than Sanyasa.To Arjuna who is
> deluded without clarity the Lord advises him.
>

Dear Srikanta,

I think you have missed the purport of my post on the above subject.  I was
pointing out that the so-called Padma Purana verses directed at Advaita do
not indeed conform to the Advaita as taught by Shankaracharya.  I took up
this one example and showed how the Padmapurana verse says, '(Advaita)
(Mayavada) teaches 'one should give up one's own duty' which is not a fact.
I quoted Shankara's words which only teach that 'one should not give up
one's duty'. (I have not touched on the point that 'duties' are there only
for the unenlightened. This point is outside the scope of my post.)  By
saying all this I was only conveying that the persons who have interpolated
these verses in the Padmapurana with the avowed objective of vilifying the
Advaita of Shankaracharya have no proper understanding of the system. I just
pointed out this one glaring mistake of the interpolator.  In other words,
they say 'advaita teaches xxx' which is not what advaita is teaching at
all.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v