[Advaita-l] Fwd: Shri Anandagiri Acharya’s bhakti towards Bhagavan Umapati Shambhu

[V Subrahmanian]

Please read the full post here:
https://groups.google.com/g/advaitin/c/-suN7Cp_pCI

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 6, 2022 at 11:43 PM
Subject: Shri Anandagiri Acharya’s bhakti towards Bhagavan Umapati Shambhu
To: Advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com>


Sri Natraj Maneshinde's FB Post:

Acharya Shri Anandajnana, also known as Anandagiri, is the tikakara of
Advaita Sampradaya. He has authored glosses on the Prasthana-traya bhashyas
of Bhagavatpada and also on the Vartikas of Shri Sureshvaracharya.

From the mangalacharana verses of his works, it is clear that Anandagiri
Acharya was a devout bhakta of Bhagavan Vishnu. He frequently invokes
Vishnu in the form of Purushottama, Neeladri-chudamani and Dwarakadheesh.
Based on this, a few enthusiasts jump to the conclusion that Anandagiri
Acharya was a ‘Vaishnava’ and so were the other early Advaitian Acharyas.
But, to their great disappointment, a careful perusal of Anandagiri
Acharya’s works reveals that though an ananya Vishnu-bhakta, he shows no
hesitation in considering Bhagavan Shiva as the Parabrahman. Shri Subrahmanian
Vaidyanathan
<https://www.facebook.com/subrahmanian.vaidyanathan?__tn__=-]K*F> ji has
highlighted such instances in his articles. An attempt has been made below
to gather them in one place.

1)Mangalacharana shloka from Nyaya-nirnaya ~ Anandagiri ji’s commentary on
Sutra bhashya of Bhagavatpada .

Note the subtle reference made to the Yaksha/Uma-haimavati episode of
Kenopanishad suggesting that Bhagavan Shiva was the Brahman who manifested
as Yaksha.

योऽनुग्रानुग्रतेजा जनयति सकलानालयं यं लभन्ते

सर्वे निर्वान्ति येन श्रुतिपथपथिका वौषडातन्वते च ।

यस्मै यस्मादकस्मात्परिभवचकिता यस्य संरोचयन्ते

चिन्ता यस्मिन्प्रवृत्ता भृशविशदधियः संश्रये तं गिरीशम् ॥ ३ ॥

[I take refuge in Giriśa who makes haughty people humble, who is attained
by all during laya, by whose grace those who walk the path of the
vaidikamarga succeed, to whom all sacrifices are addressed, by whom
becoming deluded by chance the devas later take delight in him [here the
reference is to the Kenopaniṣad incident where the Devas, Indra, etc.
sighted an Effulgence and became curious about it and were humbled by it
and ultimately became truly interested in realizing it
and succeeded. Anandagiri therefore holds that Effulgence to be Śiva, who
was pointed out by Umā, whom Shankara says is Rudrapatnī, vidyā] and whom
those who are extremely pure-minded comtemplate upon.]