[Advaita-l] Dharma

Jaldhar H. Vyas jaldhar at braincells.com
Wed Dec 8 00:57:01 CST 2004


On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Kiran B.R. wrote:

> This is one meaning of the word saMnyAsI. There is no need to stick to
> this meaning when understanding BG 6.1.

Again Advaita Vedantins aren't interested in selectively quoting random
shlokas.  We are interested in the whole system of the shastras of which
the Gita is one tiny part.

> It is not uncommon that words
> get context-dependent meanings, especially given the constraint of
> chaMdaH. There are examples in the shAMkaragItAbhAShya itself of
> giving new and totally uncommon meanings to words, sentences and
> grammatical constructs. For one, see the bhAShya for:
>
> "...tamEva chAdyaM puruShaM prapadyE yataH pravRuttiH prasRutA
> puraaNI" (BG 15.4)
>
> It is crystal clear that this vAkya is spoken by kRuShNa ("prapadyE"),

Yes.  And that's what Shankaracharya says.

> Shri Shankara makes believe that kRuShNa says that Arjuna must say
> this!
>

Well who else?  Is Krshna Bhagavan supposed to be telling himself "I take
refuge in the ancient supreme Person called existence"?  And if this is a
case of Shankaracharya twisting words for his own ends, why does Ramanuja
interpret it the exact same way?


> In some other place (I forget), Shri Shankara asks the pUrvapakShI :
> "What if [my thesis] goes against shruti?"

Do tell.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a boy! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/nilagriva/



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