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ARTICLE : Shankaracharya and the Bhagavat Purana
Some interest has been raised by my assertion that Shankaracharya has
quoted from the Bhagavat Purana. My initial answer was going to be that
this was something I'd heard, one of those things "everyone knows." (One
thing which we can safely rule out is that I've heard this from Gaudiyas.
The only ones I know are here in this newsgroup. Our local Vaishnavas
belong to the Pushti Marg of Vallabha.)
However today while in the midst of looking for something else, I found a
more concrete reference. I have a Gujarati translation of the Bhagavata
Mahapurana by Girijashankar Mayashankar Shastri (who as the name suggests
was a smarta.) It contains a forward also in Gujarati entitled "Some
Things You Should Know About the Puranas." by one Manilal N. Dwivedi. One
of its' sections deals with this very subject. After observing that the
conventional wisdom is that Shankaracharyas philosophy is opposed to Bhakti
and that he is an enemy of Vaishnavas, the author makes several arguments
why this is not so. A notable one is that according to Madhva(!)
Shankaracharya wrote a commentary on the Bhagavata Purana. No quote is
given. The author quotes a line "sa ashreyah parama brahma paramatma
paratpara iti bhagavate." which is said to be in the
Vishnusahasranamabhashya. Also there in a work called
Chaturvimshatimataviveka which is another name for the Sarasiddhantasangrah
and was deemed an authentic work of Adya Shankaracharya by the editors of
the Vani Vilas collection of his works. This contains a passage,
"Paramhamsadharmo bhagavate purane krshnenoddhavayopadishtah" a clear
reference to the 11th Skandha.
Now perhaps one might wonder if these quotes are interpolations given that
they occur in admittedly minor and possibly apocryphal works instead of the
Prasthana Trayi. Mr. Dwiwedi considers this too. He replies that the
tradition considers them authentic and while the modern scholars can cast
doubt they can't actually prove anything so this is kutarka to be ignored.
As a final point, he offers a quote from Gaudapadacharya to whom he
attributes a commentary on the Uttaragita "Taduktam bhagavate teshamasau
kleshala eva shishyate nanyadyatha sthulatushavadhatinam" (which is
Bhagavat 10.14.4) He says if the paramguru of Shankaracharya knew of the
Bhagavatapurana, how could Shankaracharya himself not know of it?
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas [[email protected]] And the men .-_|\ who hold
Consolidated Braincells Inc. / \
http://www.braincells.com/jaldhar/ -)~~~~~~~~ Perth->*.--._/ o-
"Witty quote" - Dead Guy /\/\/\ _ _ ___ _ _ Amboy v McQ!
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