[Advaita-l] Fw: Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and Advaita?

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
To: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2012 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and Advaita?
 

Namaste,
Of course, Yamunacharya did not understand Advaita fully and he  could not dissolve his ego (ie. his individual ego of being separate from the Brahman). The Dvaitins and Visishtadvaitins truly do not understand that He (the Brahman) wanted to be many, as they cannot think of  Him to be without being many at any time. Yamunacharya was an advaitin himself to begin with and Ramanujacharya was his disciple. Later on Ramanujacharya churned out Visishtadvaita and converted Yamunacharjya to his (Ramanujacharya's) way of thinking. The wiles of Prakriti is lurking out all the time and the ego of individuality caught Ramanujacharya and Yamiunacharya back  like it catches everybody.

Incidentally the Dvaitins think that Maya is Adi Sankara's invention and and they do not understand that more than five thousand years ago Lord Krishna talked about Maya.


Regards,

Sunil KB



________________________________
 From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
To: Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 10:14 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Did Madhusudana Saraswati Reconcile Bhakti and Advaita?
 




On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:55 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

Namaste,
>
>You said
>Quote
>
>I have seen a (Dvaita) scholar writing in a book on the three major schools of Vedanta: it would be proper to say that since the Buddhists formulated their system borrowing from the NirguNa Brahman of the Upanishads they are 'pracchanna Vaidika-s'.
>
>Unquote
>
>It will be nice if you can kindly let us know the name of this Dvaita scholar as well as the name of the book he had written. 
>

The Kannada book 'mata-traya-sameekshA' authored by Dr.A.V.Nagasampige, Director of Purnaprajna Samshodhana Mandiram, Bangalore, says in the section 'Advaita' these significant things:

On page 51 it carries a heading: Is AdvaitavAda Bauddhadarshana?
On page 54 there is a heading : Bauddhas are pracchanna vaidikas.  It says:

The charge that Advaita has been influenced by Buddhist thinking has been stiffly refuted by Shankara, Vachaspatimishra, SarvajnAtmamuni, ShrIharsha, Anandabodha etc.  They have brought out the doctrinal differences between the two schools.  This section goes on to substantiate this statement by several quotes from these Advaita Acharyas' works.  It concludes:
//Therefore since Buddhists accepted the Vedic formulation of NirviShesha Chaitanya in a changed form they are 'pracchanna vaidika-s.'  //

// ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ವೇದದಲ್ಲಿರುವ ನಿರ್ವಿಶೇಷ ಚೈತನ್ಯದ ಪರಿಕಲ್ಪನೆಯನ್ನು ಒಪ್ಪಿದ ಬೌದ್ಧರು ’ಪ್ರಚ್ಛನ್ನವೈದಿಕರು.’//

At the beginning of the book the author has acknowledged the help of Vidwan SheshAchala Sharma, a noted Advaitic scholar of Bangalore.  So the book, on the portion dealing with Advaita, carries the backing of a traditional scholar too.  That way the portion is authentic and therefore reliable.  I have read it and found it quite satisfactory.  

>Of course, some statements of some people have to be taken with a pinch of salt.  For example Yamunacharya called Adi Sankaracharya as the Pracchanna Buddha.
 
Sri Ramanuja has said this as the introductory verse in his 'Vedartha sangraha':
परं ब्रह्मैवाज्ञं भ्रमपरिगतं संसरति तत् परोपाध्यालीढं विवशम् अशुभस्यास्पदमिति ।
श्रुतिन्यायापेतं जगति विततं मोहनमिदं तमो येनापास्तं स हि विजयते यामुनमुनिः ।। इति । 

It says that the Great Yamunacharya dispelled the ignorance (Advaita) that holds 'Brahman itself owing to ajnAnam succumbs to delusion and remains in samsara and therefore is the abode of all inauspiciousness which view is devoid of the support of the scripture and reason.'  

One can see how the above is based on a deep ignorance about Advaita which, on the contrary, says:

[the introductory verse to the Advaitasiddhi of Sri Madhusudana Saraswati] 
मायाकल्पितमातृतामुखमृषाद्वैतप्रपञ्चाश्रयः
सत्यज्ञानसुखात्मकः श्रुतिशिखोत्थाखण्डधीगोचरः ।
मिथ्याबन्धविधूननेन परमानन्दैकतानात्मकं
मोक्षं प्राप्त इव स्वयं विजयते विष्णुर्विकल्पोज्झितः ॥ इति   । 

The verse says 'VishNu (Brahman) who is innately satya, jnana and sukha, is the abode of the universe consisting of the unreal dvaita of knower, knowing and known conjured up by mAyA, and owing to the akhaNDAkAravRtti-based realization of His native Ananda svarUpa, being freed from the apparent bondage shines as though liberated, free from all the vikalpa-s.'

This purport of Advaita has not been recognized by the schools that are opposed to Advaita.

At other times it becomes difficult to oppose some statements. For example the fifth Veda (ie. the Purana) tells us that Lord Buddha was one of the avataras of Lord Vishnu.
 
The Madhvas have an authoritative narrative that does not deny Vishnu's Bauddhavatara but at the same time 'absolving' Vishnu of all the ignominy attached to Buddha/ism.  [pl. search on the net for this article.]     
 
Regards,
>
subrahmanian.v   

>
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