[Advaita-l] Sharaba

[Satish Arigela]

namaste Sriram garu,


>Sankara Bhagavatpada is neither against vaiSNava nor saiva.  Otherwise, He would not
>have advocated panchAyatana worship.  That which is shruti viruddha, has been 
>rejected and abandoned.

There is no evidence of shankara having advocated pa~nchAyatana pUja. Scholars are of the opinion that it came sometime later after shankara. shruti viruddha : I am yawning as I see this: :-)


>Among the 2 forms of upAsanAs viz., nirguNa and saguNa, the nirguNa is superior.  
>So, tattva chintana is uttama mArga.  Only the mUDAH (fools) who are mandAdhikArIs
>take to mantra mArga and practice vaSIkaraNa mantrAs. 

There seems to be too much mix up here. 


Taking to mantra mArga and practicing vashIkaraNa mantra-s are two different things. They are not the same.

What is mandAdhikAri and what is not, is again a matter of perspective. You sure have seen many upAsaka-s and you know that genuine mantra shAstra teachers do not go out in public and give mantra-s to mandamati-s.

Again we have seen examples of complete idiots who even lack basic common sense given sanyAsa in shankara sAmpradAya itself.

>sharabha sALuva mantra is not capable of giving chitta shuddhi.  It is only used to mAraNa 
>prayOgAs,
 Atma rakSa from AbhichArika prayOgAs against some forms of krityA 
prayOga.  It is a tAmasika mantra >and *AkAsa bhairava kalpa* details out
 it's worship.

No mantra, whether pa~nchAkShari or aShTAkShari gives you chitta shuddhi by default. They might give chitta shuddhi --only if-- they are practiced with the right attitude... otherwise they might or might not depending on the person.

So that being the case, the specific viniyoga of sharabha is not a deciding factor when it comes to giving chitta shuddhi.
If one is so focused on attaining chitta shuddhi, it can be even be acquired by practicing a kShudra vidya. I am exaggerating a bit here... just to drive home the point.

The pa~nchAkShari and aShTAkShari can also be used for mAraNa etc if that is what one want. The details can be found in great vaiShNava Agama-s like nArAyaNa saMhita. So why single out sharabha mantra? Again, it is not as though there is only one sharabha mantra. There are a few. Atleast one sharabha mantra used in the context of nR^isiMhopAsana has pa~nchAkShari as part of it.


>Whereas, nrisimha mantra is called *mantra rAja* and all the Acharyas of Sringeri 
>worship this nrisimha anuSTup mantra as a part of their nityAnuSTAna and followed
>by
 pArAyaNa of nrisimha pUrva & uttara tApini upaniSad.  The bija 
mantra *mrityu mrityuM* confers immortality to the >upAsaka.  


The mantra rAja can also be used for abhichAra and the details of the same can be found in scores of texts.
So the mantra being used for different purposes cannot be used as yard stick to measure their individual greatness.
But it will be agreed by all that mantra-rAja is indeed mantra-rAja.

In the AvaraNa pUja for sharabha-rAja, nR^isiMha is invoked too.


Regards



________________________________
 From: Venkata sriram P <venkatasriramp at yahoo.in>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org 
Sent: Saturday, May 5, 2012 1:16 AM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Sharaba
 
Namaste,
 
//
Does this in any way mean that Sankara does not accept the Shaiva view?
//
 
Sankara Bhagavatpada is neither against vaiSNava nor saiva.  Otherwise, He would not
have advocated panchAyatana worship.  That which is shruti viruddha, has been 
rejected and abandoned.  As simple as that.
 
That said, the purpose of sankara bhagavatpada's birth was meant entirely 
for a different purpose which He accomplished in a short span of 32 years !
 
shrI vidyAraNya in Vedanta Panchadasi says:
 
itO(a)pyatishayaM matvA mantrAnvashyAdikAriNaH
mUDA japantu tEbhyO(a)timUDAH kriSimupAsatAM
 
Among the 2 forms of upAsanAs viz., nirguNa and saguNa, the nirguNa is superior.  
So, tattva chintana is uttama mArga.  Only the mUDAH (fools) who are mandAdhikArIs
take to mantra mArga and practice vaSIkaraNa mantrAs.  
 
sharabha sALuva mantra is not capable of giving chitta shuddhi.  It is only used to mAraNa 
prayOgAs, Atma rakSa from AbhichArika prayOgAs against some forms of krityA prayOga.  It is a tAmasika mantra and *AkAsa bhairava kalpa* details out it's worship.
 
Whereas, nrisimha mantra is called *mantra rAja* and all the Acharyas of Sringeri 
worship this nrisimha anuSTup mantra as a part of their nityAnuSTAna and followed
by pArAyaNa of nrisimha pUrva & uttara tApini upaniSad.  The bija mantra *mrityu mrityuM* confers immortality to the upAsaka.  
 
regs,
sriram