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Re: Animal-Killing, and Soul-Merging Condemned
vijaypai@mandolin.rice.edu (Vijay Sadananda Pai) wrote:
> In article <4es1pu$gi6@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
> Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu> wrote:
> >> In article <4ekm5d$91g@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
> >> Ken Stuart <kstuart@snowcrest.net> wrote:
>
> >> >All the following are my understandings of Vaishnava doctrine:
>
> >> >1) Shankara was an incarnation of God to lead people from an
> >> >atheistic Buddhism to an impersonalistic Advaita, since the latter was
> >> >better for them (even though it wasn't the ultimate viewpoint).
>
> Shrisha Rao pointed out that this was false according to the Maadhva school;
> it is also false according to the Gaudiya Vaishnava school -- Shankara
> is considered an incarnation of Shiva sent by the Lord (Narayana) to
> preach the mayavada philosophy.
I had no comments on this, I fail to see why this was brought out here.
The absurdity of the supposition of the Gaudiya school speaks for itself.
> As for being better or worse than Buddhism, I've seen both sides taken among
> Gaudiya Vaishnavas; however, all consider it (just as the Maadhva school
> does) to be "pracchanam bauddham".
>
> >Ken, did you by any chance get this "better for them" thing from
> >the ISKCON homepage on Shankara? If so I must tell you that the person who
> >wrote it has a good imagination, but a not so good talent for detail. It is a
> >well known fact that Kumarila Bhatta was the person who defeated the Buddhists
> >and NOT Shankara.
>
> Can you say which homepage this is? I maintain a large list of
> ISKCON-related links (http://www-ece.rice.edu/~vijaypai/hkindex.html)
I haven't seen your homepage, I don't know if you have this gem. If you don't
please add the address http://206.86.8.2/~rayk/html/sankara.html to it.
> and can find no page that refers to Shankara having defeated the
> Buddhists. Following 2 or 3 links, I can find an ISKCON-maintained
> page that asserts that Shankara's philosophy is covered Buddhism, but
> nothing that suggests that Shankara defeated Buddhism. So, which are
> you talking about?
The beginning of the page:
Shankaracarya
The Incarnation of Shiva
by
Jeffrey Wallace
Originally published in "The Clarion Call"
by
The Gaudiya Vaisnava Society.
Some excerpts:
is false. In other words, Shankaracarya's philosophy was a
compromise between theism and atheism. It is said that
Shankaracarya, according to the necessity of time, place, and
circumstance, took the position between theism and atheism because
the wholesale conversion of Buddhists to the path of full-fledged
theism would not have been possible.
Professors of philosophy in India refer to a verse from the Padma
Purana (Uttara khanda 25.7) that reveals the hidden identity of
Shankaracarya:
mayavadam asac-chastram
pracchannam bauddham ucyate
mayaiva vihitam devi
kalau brahmana-murtina
"The Mayavada philosophy, Siva informed his wife Parvati, is
covered Buddhism. In the form of a brahmana in the kali-yuga,I
teach this imagined philosophy." Shankaracarya is thus widely
accepted as an incarnation of Shiva.
[Image]
From a purport by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Since Lord Siva does not incarnate himself unless there is some
special reason, it is very difficult for an ordinary person to
contact him. However, Lord Siva does descend on a special occasion
when he is ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In this
regard, it is stated in the Padma Purana that Lord Siva appeared
as a brahmana in the age of Kali to preach the Mayavada
philosophy, which is nothing but a type of Buddhist philosophy.
Lord Siva, speaking to Parvati-devi, foretold that he would spread
the Mayavada philosophy in the guise of a sannyasi brahmana just
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
to eradicate Buddhist philosophy. This sannyasi was Sripada
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sankaracarya. In order to overcome the effects of Buddhist
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
philosophy and spread Vedanta philosophy, Sripada Sankaracarya had
to make some compromise with the Buddhist philosophy, and as such
he preached the philosophy of monism, for it was required at that
time.
S.B. 4.24.17
\051 Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
end excerpts.
Eradication of Buddhism = arguments with them and hence defeat them. Since
Buddhism was eradicated by Kumarila (supposedly an incarnation of Kartikeya),
this reasoning by Prabhupada can at best be dismissed as absurd. Obviously he
had no clue of the various Digvijayas and took some bedside tales and converted
them into Puranic and Vedic assertions of his tradition's greatness. Note that
Kumarila was not an Advaitin and was actually a Purva mimamsakin.
Just in case you didn't know the following fact:
Astounding fact : By the time Shankara was on the scene all Buddhists had been
routed out.
Sooo .....
I don't read alt.meditation regularly, however Giri seems to and he informed me
that various ISKCON personalities on a.m regularly post excerpts from this on
a.m. So I supposed that this web-page is probably a supremely important one for
ISKCONites.
As a side note to people who actually know some history of Shankara. Please
read the web page I have given above. When I first read it I was ROTFL. It also
made me wonder if the Clarion Call (where this article was published) publishes
extremely funny pieces like this often. If it does I might actually subscribe
to it :-).
Ramakrishnan.
--
Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said, "The flag is moving." The other
said, "The wind is moving." The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by. He
told them, "Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving." - The Gateless Gate
