[Advaita-l] Bhakti in Advaita Tradition - Post - Gaudapada and Pre-Madhusudana

[Anand Hudli]

Bhaskar wrote:

>One line of argument to call shankara as vaishNava is that shankara
>whenever talks about 'pratikOpAsana' he invariably refers to 'vishNu
>sAligrAma' & nowhere he gives the example of  shiva lingam.  And another
>line is, since shankara is himself an incarnation of bhagavAn shiva, he
>always contemplates & prays vishNu.  It is just  like shiva who is  parama
>bhAgavata, always immerse himself in rAma dhyAna !!  IMO, these are all
>some fanatic observations of some staunch vaishNavaites.


Well, another line of argument may be stated.

The shaivas could respond to this by saying that in any comparison, say A
with B, it is commonly understood that the thing being compared, A , is not
the same as the thing being compared with, B. For example, when we say, "the
warrior is like a lion", the warrior's fierce fighting is being compared
with that of the animal, the lion, which fights fiercely. It does not mean
the warrior is the lion. Reasoning along similar lines, when Shankara
compares the contemplation on the all-pervading Brahman as being present in
certain symbols, with the worship of ViShNu in a specific object, the
shAlagrAma, it is not possible to conclude that Brahman is the same as
Vishnu. Therefore, the Brahman being spoken of here is not the same as
ViShNu and must be shiva. Besides, shankara bhagavatpAda has used the word
"Parameshvara" to refer to God in his sUtra bhAShya, for example in 1.1.17.
The term Parameshvara generally denotes shiva more than ViShNu.

Anand