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Re: Significance of Siva Linga
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To: ghen@netcom.com (GHEN)
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Subject: Re: Significance of Siva Linga
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From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rbalasub@ecn.purdue.edu>
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Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 21:06:22 -0500 (EST)
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In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9605032109.A22056-0100000@netcom> from "GHEN" at May 3, 96 09:24:10 pm
> Could you please resend this message?
Here it is again.
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Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya@cco.caltech.edu> wrote:
>Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:
>> Yes, many of the shaivite saints clearly endorsed advaita (esp.
>> thaayumaanavar).
>
>In many of tAyumANavar's songs, the word vedAnta means only advaita
>vedAnta, and siddhAnta means Saiva siddhAnta. He attempts to reconcile
>the two philosophical systems through his poems. However, the earlier
>tamizh Saiva saints like mANikkavAcakar did not endorse Sankaran advaita
>vedAnta. In fact, mANikkavAcakar has criticized advaita in one of his
>works, although the south Indian Saiva siddhAnta, like Kashmir Saivism,
>is pronouncedly monistic itself.
As far as I know the official shaiva siddhaanta maTas do not endorse advaita.
They are more similar to vishistaadvaitins in the the sense that they claim
everything is an amsa of shiva (I am trying to state things in a simple manner,
so vishishTaadvaitins, please bear with me :-)). It has been my understanding
that it is not as monistic as kaashmir shavism. However, in my reading
(unfortunately limited) of the shaivite thamiz works, I have found bhakti +
advaita to be the norm. In the thillai vaaz an^thaNar puraaNam (history of
brahmins living in thillai or chidambaram), in seekizaar's periya puraaNam, he
clearly states that shiva is advaita and nirguNa. I have read a collection of
thaayumaanavar's poems a long time ago and it seemed to me that he was clearly
endorsing advaita. Unfortunately the book is back in India. I have also read
some poems by siddhas and IMO many of them endorse advaita.
As far as the criticism of shaMkara by maaNickavaachakar, it may be due to more
mundane reasons. I am at present reading a book "Caste and politics in India"
by Ghurye, and the behavior of the brahmins in those days could at best be
described as nauseating. There is a separate chapter on caste in Tamil Nadu,
where he states that unlike other parts the non-brahmins always asserted their
equality with the brahmins. This of course refers to the vellala caste, to
which maaNickavaachakar and many other people belonged to. I am sure the
brahmins affiliated to shaMkara mutts would have followed the example of other
brahmins and must have distinguished themselves by their nasty behavior (:-)),
which may explain the criticism of maaNickavaachakar.
In my reading of maaNickavaachakar's poems, I see the stress in bhakti. However
he also shows that he is an "advaitin". The criticism of shaMkara may also be
due to the lack of shaMkara ignoring bhakti, atleast in his main works like
upadeshasaahasri, suutra bhaashya etc. This may have given rise to a popular
notion that shaMkara was against bhakti!
>both vIraSaiva and advaita scholars, under the patronage of the ikkerI
>nAyakas. Appayya Dikshitar also tried to defend the Saiva Agamas and
>reconcile them with advaita vedAnta, in an effort similar to
>Yamunacharya's defense of the pAncarAtra Agamas with respect to smArta
>orthodoxy.
I am not well versed with the aagamas. I have read a translation of the
devikaalottara and sarva GYaanottara. These are teachings of shiva to devi
and skanda respectively. They are as uncompromisingly advaitic as anything
else. In fact the sarva GYaanottara has the famous "pot" example. However this
may not be the case with other shaivite aagamas. I think these are also the
minor aagamas among the 28 aagamas. The view that the aagamas and the literature
of the shaivite saints have equal status with the vedas is not uncommon among
smaartas (especially in Tamil Nadu). Of course the official position of the
shaMkara mutts with respect to this is different. As far as I am concerned I
hold the former view, as the official position has no use, unless one is
looking for arguments with other schools of thought. Interestingly enough, in
in these two aagamas, shiva condemns all arguments (for the non-realized)
and urges to realize the aatman, leaving aside all mantras, japas, chakras etc.
Actually another curious thing is that the shaMkara maTas originally were at
loggerheads with the kaashmiir shaivites, but now endorse the yoga vashishhTha,
the canonical text of kaashmiir shaivism.
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
http://yake.ecn.purdue.edu/~rbalasub/
