[Advaita-l] Shankara as Vaishnava

[Srikanta Narayanaswami]

>Infact,the concept of Vaishnavism was started by adwaitins themselves.see 
>Bhagavatham by >suka,Gaudapada,Shankara.

Feel free to have the last word on this topic but above does not make any sense.

vaiShNava-s in the form of vaikhAnasa-s and pA~ncharAtrika-s(in various forms as 
sAttvata-s, shikin-s, mUlaka-s, ekAntin-s etc) have existed long before 
shankara.

vaikhAnasa vaishNava mata was by vikhanasa puruSha and pA~ncharAtra was revealed 
to various(actually 5) devata-s. 


shankara is completely out of this picture and had nothing to do with vaiShNava 
mata.

I will say no more on this unless there is something substantial.
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With reference to the above comments,I would like to say that ,by the word Vaishnava,I mean as a concept as Vishnu.This we find at many places in the shankara Bhashyas.
this is also referred in many upanishads:"Tad Vishnuryasya Paramam padam sada pasyanti surayah"See the Bhashya of shankara with reference to this sruthi.
"Achyutam paramam padam"The Vaikhanasa concept or the Pancharatra concepts are nothing to do with Vishnu as a concept,but modes of worship.Altogether,even before Ramanuja and Madhva,we can say that Shankara as in the forefront of this concept.
N.Srikanta.