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Re: ISKCON -- help with these terms
Shrisha Rao wrote:
>
>
> I think Shankara is not called an avataara even by Advaitis, because
> that tradition portrays him as a realized soul or jiivan-mukta who
> taught other souls, rather than as the Supreme Lord Himself (or one of
> His senior attendants) preaching to devotees. Perhaps this is why
> there is so little worship of Shankara by Advaitis, in contrast with
> the egregious deification of Raamaanuja and Madhva by their
> sampradaayas?
>
The various Sankara-vijayams do talk of Shankara being an avatAra of
Siva, and these works were supposedly written by advaitins. However, it
is only in very recent times (the last 100 years or so) that Sankara
Jayanthi is being observed regularly among advaita circles. Typically,
Sankara is worshipped not as Sankara himself, but as Dakshinamoorthy, as
in the Kalady temple.
Vidyasankar
