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Re: ISKCON -- Please help with these terms
gmadras@pinto.engr.ucdavis.edu (Giri) wrote:
>Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> writes:
>
>>dkoch@sas.upenn.edu (Dave Koch) wrote:
>
>>>Please help me to define these terms that relate to the ISKCON (Hare
>>>Krishna) movement. I realize that there is a clear distinction between
>>>Hindu and ISKCON, but since there is no Hare Krishna newsgroup I thought
>>The following responses are kind of tounge-in-cheek, but also reflects some of
>>the posts which have appeared on srh and ah.
>
>>>avatar (avatara)
>
>>Any avatara of Vishnu=krishna. Any other avataara was sent by Vishnu to mislead
>>people (especially people like me).
>
>
>I don't understand what this means. If by misleading people you mean
>the preaching of Advaita vedanta, how are the following reconciled :
>
>1. Dattatreya was an incarnation of VishhNu [and Shiva and Brahma]. He did
>preach the non-dual philosophy. The fact that Dattatreya was an incarnation
>is mentioned in the puraaNa-s. If you don't believe that Dattatreya preached
>a non-dual philosophy, read Avadhuta giitaa and/or tripura rahasya.
>
Actually the story of Dattatreya is given differently in different puraanas.
or ex. one version goes that Vishnu was born as Dattatreya, Rudra as Duurvaasa
(I forgot who Brahma was born as) to the same mother (as a boon). This version
is supported by the Shiva puraaNa. I can look up the details if you wish. The
various puraaNas give different stories about the same incident. Ex, the
Bhagavata gives one story for why Shiva is worshipped in Linga form and the
Shiva puraaNa gives a totally different story.
>2. Anandagiri in his Tika notes that VishhNu appeared before gaudapada and
>revealed to him the non-dual nature of the Brahman which prompted
>gaudapada to write the karika on mandukya upanishhad.
>
Actually, the Tika by Anandagiri is quite suspect and people say Anandagiri did
not write it, since he refers to people who were born much later - say about 5
centuries :-). I am not sure about this though. Vidya is probably the person to
ask. In any case Gaudapada's guru is traditionally held to be Suka - yes Suka
of Suka Maharishi fame. Vishnu may have appeared to Gaudapada also. I can't say
anything about that.
>One may argue that the tika of anandagiri was tampered with and he
>really said no such thing. Is it also argued that Dattatreya was also not
>an incarnation of the Trinity ? and all the verses in the puraaNa-s are
>spurious ?
As far as I know Dattatreya is held in high esteem only in the smaartha and
Tantrik communities. In all these traditions Daattatreya is considered an
incarnation of Vishnu or as you said the trinity. Who knows, there might be
some verse in the Paadma puraaNa or one of the other puraaNas explaining why
Vishnu wanted to fool us by incarnating as Dattaatreya:-).
Ramakrishnan.
--
Sitting quietly doing nothing, spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/
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