authorship of the VC (was Re: [Advaita-l] Question on Samadhi)

S Jayanarayanan sjayana at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 9 17:58:59 CDT 2003


--- bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

Thanks again for posting the observations of the Holsenapur Swamiji. I
was just thinking about one aspect:

[..]

> But it is very difficult to believe that this shankara (author of VC)
> is
> prasthAna trayi bhAshyakAra.  I have following observation to
> strengthen my
> claims :
> 
> (a)   There is substantial  difference in style of writing between
> shankara's Upadesha Sahasri (US) &  VC.  (as said earlier, swamiji
> says, US
> is the genuine work of bhAshyakAra & it is in complete harmony with
> purports of prasthAna trayi bhAshya & Shri Shankara Bhagavadpada's
> direct
> desciple Sri SureshwarAchAya quotes verses from US considering it as
> an
> authoritative work from the pen of his guru Sri Shankara &
> vArtikakAra
> hardly quotes any verse from VC.
> 

[..]

> (b)  After realising jagatkAraNa sat-chit-ananda brahman through
> shruti
> mahA vAkya shravaNa of tattvamasi etc. realised soul has to do vAsanA
> tyAga
> etc. is very near to mandana mishra's brahma siddhi purports which is
> evidently absent in shankara's PT bhAshya.
> 

No doubt the author of the VC requires vAsanAkshaya after BrahmaGYAna,
which is un-Shankaran. But is it possible to connect it with the
observations below on the authorship of the VC:

[..]

> After considering the above, I have searched for the author who used
> to
> this style of writing, who quotes these pramANa vAkyas, who upholds
> VC's
> philosophical stand.  Finally, I found out one name *Sri
> Shankarananda* who
> wrote *vruttis* in the name of  *dIpika* to upanishads & vEdanta
> sUtras &
> also written an elaborate vyAkyAna to gIta in the name of *gIta
> tAtparya
> bOdhini*(GTB).  One can easily find that there is lot of similarities
> between GTB & VC in its writing  style, purports, philosophy etc.  It
> is
> also believed that Sri shankarananda was incarnation of shankara (
> shankarAmsha saMbhUta).  & in GTP mangala shlOka Sri shankarananda
> salutes
> his teacher Sri AnandAtma saraswati who was also well known as
> *vidyAshankara*.  With this we can assume that Sri Shankarananda
> might have
> saluted his guru AnandAtma as govinda swarUpa & at conclusion *ESha
> shankara bhArati* can be interpreted as his guru's (vidyAshankara)
> words.
> (Swamiji requests here the historians to do more in-depth research
> work on
> his assumptions to arrive at the credible conclusions).

This just struck me:

Swami Vidyaranya says in his famous work jIvanmuktiviveka that
BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti are not synonymous terms, since the latter
requires vAsanAkshaya whereas the former does not. This is very similar
to the teachings of the VC. Therefore, between the times of Adi
Shankara and Vidyaranya, vAsanAkshaya has become an extremely important
element in advaita VedAnta. 

If Shankarananda says to the efect that vAsanAkshaya is required for a
GYAnI, then I feel we have a pretty good case for the authorship of the
VC going to Shankarananda. Has anyone taken the Swamiji's analysis to
their logical conclusion? Does anyone know where one can obtain a copy
of the GItA Tatparya Bodhini or any other works of that author?

Thanks,

Kartik

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