[Advaita-l] ’upAsana' and 'bhakti' part 2

[Satish Arigela]

namaste


>तस्मात् सर्वशास्त्रविदपि असंप्रदायवित् मूर्खवदेव उपेक्षणीयः says 
Shankara in the Bhagavadgita Bhashya.  Whatever is not approved by the 
sampradaya is not admissible to >Advaitins who follow Shankara.  
Outsiders' approval of Shankara is not the criterion.  Advaitins are not worse off without the appreciation of tantriks. 


I see your point and I respect your view. However please see the following. Shankara and your good self can combine and say "fire feels cold"..on the authority of scriptures and tradition.. but the statement will be trashed and put in dust bin simply because it is not true. Just like shankara was wrongly parroting the bauddha scholar dharma kIrti's(not sure if it is dharma kIrti exactly...but definitely a bauddha scholar) views when it comes to condemning chaturbhagini worship which has validity in both purANa and veda.


This is one of the reasons, I wrote the following in a earlier post.

"Another example: There is a certain mantra, the proper japa and ritual process of which activates the kuhU nADi.
Any malfunctioning of this nADi which can happen due to screwing up the 
related ritual, or the mantra japa or the overall sAdhana procedure 
related to this mantra can have very bad consequences.. in the worst 
case the subject could end up as a mad man. To add a little flavor..if any of our "shankara is a sarvaGYa knows 
everything" kind of good and kind-hearted freinds are going to say... My lineage is ....shankarAchArya madhyamAM..... Mwuhahaha and hold a 
mAdhavIya shankara vijaya or the chaintanya charitAmR^ita or the nArada 
bhakti sUtra, in the hands and say "The power of Adi shankarAchArya 
compels you!!" Activate the hukU nADi or iDA instead of the kuhU nADi.. 
it is not going to work.   :-))"

Appreciation of tAntriks: What do you think the mAdhavIya shankara vijaya is trying to do with all those fanciful stories? :-)