[Advaita-l] ShAnkarapAdabhUShaNam - Sanskrit

Shrisha Rao shrao at nyx.net
Mon Oct 24 05:13:14 CDT 2011


El oct 19, 2011, a las 6:11 a.m., V Subrahmanian escribió:

> A book with the above title was published by Anandashram, PuNe, in 1932.  It
> is authored by Vidwan Raghunatha Suri.  It is apparently a critic of the
> Madhva school.  The book has a foreword by Vidwan Digambara Sastry who was
> born in a Madhva household and later 'converted' to smArta tradition after
> having studied and convinced himself of the shAnkaran vedanta.  Here is a
> link to the foreword, about 8 pages, downloadable too in pdf:
> 
> http://www.archive.org/details/Shankarapadabhushanam-prastavanaOfDigambarashastri

I have heard of this work, and do not think much of it (even its representation of Advaita does not seem to have been lauded by classical Advaitin scholars).  Many of the inferences are questionable; e.g., मध्वमतानुयायिभिः साकं शाङ्करमतानुयायिनां भोजनकन्यादानग्रहणादिव्यवहारा महाराष्ट्रदेशे इदानीमुपभ्यन्त, न तथा वल्लभरामानुजमतानुयायिभिः साकम् | अतो महदेवान्तःशत्रुत्वं मध्वमतानुयायिनाम् |

Certainly in the present day no such inference can be easily attempted, and there are all sorts of additional wrinkles; for instance, a Kannadiga Mādhva family may accept an alliance with a Kannadiga Smārta family, but perhaps not as readily with a Tamil Smārta family, and vice versa.  Even if one grants that a blanket refusal of marriage relations, etc., was in fact true at the time in Maharashtra as claimed by the author, it is a far cry to say from there that this translates into hatred of Shiva among all followers of Madhva.  What exactly is the correlation between unwillingness to marry outside the community (especially among people in a limited region), and hatred of a deity (among people of that community everywhere)?  There certainly are, as well we know, staunch Smārtas also who will not inter-marry or share a meal with people not considered rigorous enough in their practices.  It is fashionable nowadays to decry such thinking in favor of a laissez-faire attitude, but we should respect such orthodoxy and steadfast devotion to traditional values.

Other points as you and others have noted: शिवस्य तु स्वप्नेऽपि पूजनं कदाऽपि न कुर्वन्ति is just not true -- it is in fact rather imbecilic considering the profuse evidence to the contrary, not least of all the various Shiva temples including in Udupi (चन्द्रमौलीश्वर).  Perhaps the author was confused with the वीरवैष्णव sect (which I believe is a proper subset of the tradition of Ramanuja)?  It is also well known that on her wedding day, every Mādhva bride worships Pārvatī in the form of मङ्गळगौरी to seek the goddess's blessings on her soon-to-be nuptials and ensure her माङ्गल्य.  There is also a मङ्गळगौरी व्रत which is widely observed on the day prior to Ganesha Chaturthi.  (These practices are common to Kannadiga Smārtas also, but I do not know about others.)  The deity मङ्गळगौरी is never worshipped in isolation, but as the wife of Rudra only -- after all, what kind of माङ्गल्य would the deity bestow if her own is in question?  Or else, we could take a hint from Vādirāja's advice to wealth-seekers to worship Vishnu, on the grounds that Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is a पतिव्रता and will not tolerate anyone -- including her own devotee -- who is indifferent to her husband (even any wealth gained by such a person will only bring harm), whilst she will profusely reward those devoted to Him; we can thus say that Pārvatī is also a पतिव्रता and would not bestow माङ्गल्य on those who disrespect Shiva.

There is a somewhat amusing story of a lesser-known Mādhva sanyāsī from some centuries ago, who had a small institution (where his बृन्दावन still is) next to a Shiva temple.  It is said that when the then priest at that temple used to come in the morning to worship, this sanyāsī would stand up briefly and then sit down, and that likewise when the priest would leave after finishing the worship, he would likewise arise.  This went on for many days, puzzling the sanyāsī's students, who could not understand why their guru was showing such deference (an ordained sanyāsī is not supposed to show respect to a commoner, and the sanyāsī was further known to be an अपरोक्षज्ञानी).  Finally, one day they asked their master why he was doing this, to which he responded that for his own reasons, Shiva did not like that priest's worship, so would leave the linga and go away when the priest came to worship, and would return only after the worship was finished and the priest was leaving!  Thus the sanyāsī, who could see the departure and return of Shiva, would stand as a mark of respect at each instance.

Well-known Kannada songs in praise of Shiva include ಚಂದ್ರಚೂಡ ಶಿವ ಶಂಕರ of Purandara Dāsa and ಧವಳಗಂಗೆಯ ಗಂಗಾಧರ of Vādirāja.  There are a number of स्तोत्रs also, such as this appropriately titled लघुशिवस्तुति that is easily memorized:

ललितचन्द्रनिभाननसुस्मितं शिवपदं शिवदं स्मरतां शिवम् | 
विशदकोटितटित्प्रभया युतं शिवजया शिवया शिवया युतम् || १ || 

नटनाट्यनटं नटगायकं जनमुदं जलजायतलोचनम् | 
भुजगभूषणभूषितविग्रहं प्रणम हे जनते जनवल्लभम् || २ || 

श्रुतिशतप्रभया प्रभया युतं हरिपदाब्जभवां शिरसा धृतम् | 
शिव शिवेति शिवेति शिवेति वै भव भवेति भवेति भवेति वा | 
मृड मृडेति मृडेति मृडेति वै भजति यः सततं प्रणतामियात् || ३ || 

|| इति श्री व्यासतीर्थकृता लघुशिवस्तुतिः समाप्ता ||

Finally, on a personal note, I do not follow this list (or any other) on a daily or regular basis for want of time, and in fact only glance at a minute fraction of some recent postings at infrequent intervals which could be weeks or months apart.  I guess I should learn something from Vidyasankar, who like me is in his third decade online but seems to have maintained his involvement and activity level admirably well over the time (at some personal cost and with some difficulty, I'm sure).  As things stand, though, I cannot be counted on to know about or respond to postings here even if they might be of interest; I got to know about this thread only after a friend pointed out to me that my name had been explicitly mentioned in it.  Thus, it would in general be good to consider whether particular queries whose subjects may not be within the primary focus of this list, and which might need inputs from people other than the active posters, could be better raised elsewhere.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

> Here is the link to the Vol. I of the book from DLI:
> 
> http://202.41.82.144/cgi-bin/DBscripts/allmetainfo.cgi?barcode=4990010223393
> 
> I understand the whole  book, in a single volume, was also printed.
> 
> Regards,
> subrahmanian.v




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