[Advaita-l] Debunking Drishti-Srishti Vada and Eka Jiva Vada - part 1

[Aditya Kumar]

Namaste Bhaskarji,
Apologies if I have attacked SSS personally, it was just an observation that he is very harsh on Mandana. In fact most of the scholars think Mandana was different and Sureshwara was different except one (forgot the name). Of course, the tradition says both are same (Madhaviya Shankara Vijaya? not sure). Apparently there is a difference between Mandana and Vachaspati also in that, Mandana advocates jnana-karma samucchaya and Vachaspati rejects it. Too many books, too many views, too many scholars, too many opinions. I am not sure if I have even understood the basics correctly. So far, applied hamsa-ksheera nyaya, accepting only what seems rational. So far, Vachaspati seems like a reliable person. 

      From: Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com>
 To: Aditya Kumar <kumaraditya22 at yahoo.com>; Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at gmail.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
 Sent: Thursday, 27 July 2017 4:37 PM
 Subject: RE: [Advaita-l] Debunking Drishti-Srishti Vada and Eka Jiva Vada - part 1
   
#yiv6147319096 #yiv6147319096 -- _filtered #yiv6147319096 {panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} _filtered #yiv6147319096 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}#yiv6147319096 #yiv6147319096 p.yiv6147319096MsoNormal, #yiv6147319096 li.yiv6147319096MsoNormal, #yiv6147319096 div.yiv6147319096MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;}#yiv6147319096 a:link, #yiv6147319096 span.yiv6147319096MsoHyperlink {color:#0563C1;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6147319096 a:visited, #yiv6147319096 span.yiv6147319096MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:#954F72;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv6147319096 span.yiv6147319096EmailStyle17 {color:#1F497D;}#yiv6147319096 .yiv6147319096MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered #yiv6147319096 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv6147319096 div.yiv6147319096WordSection1 {}#yiv6147319096 To Bhaskarji:-    Interestingly, Sachidananda saraswati swami also takes a harsh tone against Mandana Misra, a very respected Advaitin. In fact, many scholars opine that his clout was equal to that of Shankara himself and he was an authority on Advaita in his times.     praNAms Sri Aditya Kumar prabhuji Hare Krishna    I have not read any of the work of Sri Mandana Misra nor I conclusively endorse the popular belief that maNdana is vArtikakAra Sri sureshwara, a direct disciple of bhagavatpAda.  Sri SSS somewhere observes that ( I reckon in the Kannada book ‘ vedAnta vichArada itihAsa’ ) maNdana mishra in his brahmasiddhi, at some places directly opposes shankara’s stand.  Sorry, I don’t remember those references either.  Sri SSS also notices that panchapAdikA vivaraNakAra’s popular theory i.e. mulAvidyA or bhAvarUpa avidyA (substantive, materialistic ignorance) is quite conspicuous by its absence in mandana’s brahmasiddhi but can remotely be traced in vAchaspati mishra’s bhAmati.   He (mandana)  also refutes the bhedAbhedavAdins’ theory that bheda darshana (perception of difference or manifoldness) is itself avidyA with the help of yukti-s.  And Sri SSS reckons that for bhAmati school of thought, maNdana’s brahmasiddhi is the source text.  Beyond this I don’t know anything about mandana and his works.  It is through SSS’s works only I am making these comments.  If you think  it is a fanciful observation by Sri SSS you can ignore it without attacking him personally.     Hari Hari Hari Bol!!! bhaskar