[Advaita-l] Shankara and Madhusudhana

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:

> Let us close this thread because it is taking unsavoury turn.

I don't know why the truth should be considered unsavoury.

>  A quick mail before closing...
>  
> If lack of "formal diksha" and "yOga paTTa" is the problem, then IMO, the argument
> lacks enough puShTi. 

What it is is a symptom of a bigger problem.

>  
> Assuming the name of Sankara to be his pUrvAshrama name, how come after taking
> sanyAsa, the yOgapaTTa becomes "sankara"chArya (the pUrvAshrama name???).
>  

Because the dashanami customs related to changing names were formalized 
after Shankaracharya.  By the time Vivekananda came along there was a 
public and well understood process in place.  Vivekananda did not follow 
it.

> Chandrasekhara Bharati ascended the Sringeri Pitha after His guru Shri Sacchidananda
> Nrisimha Bharati Swamigal passed away. 
>  
> Kanchi Mahaperiyaval ascended kamakoti pitha at a tender age after His guru
> Mahadevendra Saraswati attained siva loka.  Mahaperiyaval didn't have
> the formal initiation of sanyasa initially.
>  

In both cases they were the designated successors and followed a 
procedure.  They did not simply put on kesari clothes, give themselves new 
names and declare themselves initiated which is what Vivekananda did.  And 
Vivekananda did so not because he wasn't aware of the procedure for 
sannyasa but because he simply didn't care for such niceties.  One can 
try and justify that behavior if one likes (though an Advaitin would not.) 
but one cannot have it both ways and claim that such a person is an 
authority on the shastras he ignores.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>