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Re: ISKCON -- Please help with these terms
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
[*chomp*]
>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:-).
I don't know much of this in detail, but Madhva's commentary on the
BrhadaaraNyaka Upanishad lists all the avataaras of Vishnu according to
him, and includes Dattatreya in the listing. I don't think the Avadhuuta
Gita, Tripura Rahasya, etc., are considered by him to be authoritative
texts; they are not, to my best knowledge, quoted from by him, or even
by Shankara or Raamaanuja. It is very likely that they are late
creations, or perhaps works that have not enjoyed as high status among
Vedantins as the prasthaana-traya and other texts.
Also, unlike the Gaudiya approach to scripture, which often considers
PuraaNas as independently authoritative, Madhva would need to show that
Dattatreya's "misleading" was supported by Shruti references.
Regards,
Shrisha Rao
>Ramakrishnan.
