[Advaita-l] Conference on that Date of Adi Sankaracharya in October, 2002

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- On Mon, 12/28/09, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

[..]

> Simple. As per all reports, Sringeri Matha has no such
> inscription in its possession, nor do they have any tradition
> that such an inscription ever existed.
> There are so many variant traditions 
> pertaining to Sankara bhagavatpAda in the whole country.
> Why should one of the most
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> important lineages with arguably the most authentic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> tradition accept anything other than their
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> own handed-down tradition?
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> 

The last statement is extremely significant. The Sringeri Math is the greatest institution of traditional Dharma in India, if not the world.

Here are the chief reasons why:

1) Purity: The Sringeri Math has maintained moral purity that is truly exceptional, remaining above all scandals of any sort.

2) Lineage: The unbroken lineage of Gurus can be traced directly to Adi Sankara.

3) Historicity: The Sringeri Math is mentioned in indisputably historical sources such as the Madhaviya Sankara Digvijayam.

To even "defend" the Sringeri Math borders on egotism!

It is telling that other Maths such as those at Kanchi and Holenarsipur do not pass the above criteria.

Regards,
Kartik