[Advaita-l] Authenticity of 'Srimad Bhagwatam' - Extensive article

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 9:01 PM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> Adi Sankara in Sutra Bhashya has correctly explained Bhagavata Mata as
> Advaita only. Look at this -
>
> भगवानेवैको वासुदेवो निरञ्जनज्ञानस्वरूपः
> परमार्थतत्त्वम् ; स चतुर्धात्मानं प्रविभज्य प्रतिष्ठितः —
> वासुदेवव्यूहरूपेण, सङ्कर्षणव्यूहरूपेण, प्रद्युम्नव्यूहरूपेण,
> अनिरुद्धव्यूहरूपेण च ; वासुदेवो नाम परमात्मा उच्यते ; सङ्कर्षणो नाम
> जीवः ; प्रद्युम्नो नाम मनः ; अनिरुद्धो नाम अहंकारः ; तेषां वासुदेवः
> परा प्रकृतिः, इतरे सङ्कर्षणादयः कार्यम् ; तमित्थंभूतं परमेश्वरं
> भगवन्तमभिगमनोपादानेज्यास्वाध्याययोगैर्वर्षशतमिष्ट्वा क्षीणक्लेशो
> भगवन्तमेव प्रतिपद्यत इति
>
> भगवानेवैको वासुदेवो निरञ्जनज्ञानस्वरूपः परमार्थतत्त्वम् Vaasudeva only is
> the Paramartha Tattwa. That means other things are Anruta only. This is
> also agreeing with Vaasudevaha Sarvam Iti in Geeta. This Vaasudeva is Jnana
> Svaroopa. This is also like Brahman in Advaita. That Vaasudeva has divided
> Himself into Vaasudeva Vyuha, Sankarshana Vyuha, Pradyumna Vyuha and
> Aniruddha Vyuha forms. But in them Vaasudeva is Paramaatma. Sankarshana is
> Jeeva, Pradyumna is Manas and Aniruddha is Ahamkaara or Ego. In the four
> forms only Vaasudeva is the Cause and others are Effects. Worshipping Him
> for 100 years with visiting temples, Puja, Japa and Meditation the man will
> become free from defects and become Vaasudeva Himself.
>

This last 'becoming Vasudeva Himself' is not accepted by any denomination
of Bhagavatas. The other tenet ' That means other things are Anruta only.'
is also not acceptable to Bhagavatas. It is not possible to ascertain which
shade of Bhagavatas Shankara is commenting upon in that adhikarana. For, he
starts with 'this is a system that accepts Brahman as both upadana and
nimitta karanam'. When you see the Vaishnavas of the present time, Madhvas
and Ramanuja-s accept Pancharatra, but the former do not accept the abhinna
nimittopadana kaaranatvam of Brahman while the latter alone accept that.
So, we are not aware of the exact system that Shankara is talking about.





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