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Re: ARTICLE : Puraanas
Mani Varadarajan wrote:
> > Shankara has quoted nothing other than the Vishnu Purana, which is pretty
> > much advaitic.
>
> Yes it is, but not in the sense of advaita as understood
> by Sankara's school! The Vishnu Purana goes far beyond this
Yes, I am aware that it is not the same in the exact sense. It's been
called a "pure pancharatra document" (by Wilson?).
> sense of advaita, and describes the Parabrahman as the One
> without a second in the guNa-pUrNa sense, not in the sublative
> sense. This Purana, by far the most philosophical of them
You forget the skanda puraaNa with the suuta sa.nhitaa.
> all, is cover-to-cover a eulogy of the One Infinite Being who
> encompasses everything and everyone, but is yet more than this.
>
> I encourage you to read the vedArthasangraha wherein this
> Purana is discussed in splendid detail.
Thanks for the suggestion. Is the translation by one Raghavachar good?
This is available in the Vedanta book center. I guess I should read the
original, but it takes me time to wade through sanskrit texts.
But the problem I have with systems other than advaita, whether shaivite
or vaishnavite, is that none of them give a unified analysis of the
three states like gauDapaada does. This method is explicitly supported
in upanishads like the brihadaranyaka, mandukya, kaivalya, Narasimha
tapaniya etc. However only advaita takes any notice of this fact.
Ramakrishnan.
