[Advaita-l] Authorship of Saundaryalahari

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Mon, 10 Jul 2023, sunil bhattacharjya via Advaita-l wrote:

> *My (SKB’s) Reply:*

I have expelled Sunil from the list.  We do want people to explore and 
discuss freely even if it sometimes involves views which are not the 
Advaita Siddhanta.  And I for one do not claim to be above correction or 
criticism.  God knows I have made mistakes and I would like to learn too. 
But there has to be a baseline to discussions.  We cannot simply resort to 
"I think", "my opinion", "my 2 cents" unless backed up with facts.

Praveen recently posted the syllabus of the Tenali exams.  If you look at 
that you will note that the first texts studied, not just in Nyaya but all 
subjects are Tarkasangraha and (Siddhanta)Muktavali.  Why start with logic 
texts especially for Advaitins whose views on many topics are antithetical 
to Nyaya?

Nyaya has its pprehistory in what was called anvikshi, the art of debate. 
Among Astikas various darshanas had developed each with their own ideas 
about the meaning of the Vedas.  Nastika darshanas developed that denied 
the validity of the Vedas altogether.  In order to critically assess rival 
claims and grasp objective truth, rules of evidence and intepretation were 
developed. Without this kind of a rational basis we would not have a 
fruitful debate but just be shouting past one another.

Now some may point out that words and logic (not to mention trivial 
questions such as who wrote what) cannot take you to the goal of Advaita 
Vedanta.  This is true which is why it is said the highest teaching is 
silence.  But how do you get to that point?  Through the ability to 
discriminate between the real and unreal and that requires the full use of 
your mental faculties.  Unfortunately Sunil was unwilling or unable to do 
that.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>