04-29-2005, 06:59 PM
I found this on my hard-drive. It was part of a post I made at BR forum during a discussion of Vedanta:
1. Saundarya Lahari is actually about Devi, to be precise about "Sri" or "Lalita". It is a major text in "Srividya" tradition. ( Of the ten Mahavidyas that form the core of Shakta tradition, "Srividya" or "Sundari-tantra" and "kali tantra" are usually held as the most important ones. Both are supposed to be fundamentally the same but with different apporoaches. ) Saundarya Lahari has two portions, the first one goes by the name of "Saundarya Lahari" proper, which describes "Sri-Yantra" in poetical although philosophically dense stanzas. Second goes by the name of "Ananda Lahari" which is pure poetics and is not given as much value. The authorship is usually attributed to Sankara, but doubts have been expressed whether the author of Saundarya Lahari is the same Adi Sankara who propounded Advaita.
2. There are many beautiful hymns attributed to Sankara such as "Bhaja Govindam" and "Devi-aparaadha kshama stotram". In the latter the author mentions that he is now eighty five years of age and he desperately needs Devi's grace. Tradition puts Sankara's life span well within 40 years, so again there are doubts whether Sankara who composed these stotras was same as the Adi Sankara.
3. One thing that is normally accepted without dispute is that philosophical works attributed to Sankara such as his commentaries on Upanisads, Gita and works like Viveka Chudamani, Upadesa sahasri etc. really were written by Adi Sankara himself.
4. He was born in Kaladi village in Kerala, in a Saiva Brahmin family.
5. During his time Buddhism in India was in decline and lower tantrik desciplines had gained much ground. Among these were Kapaliks (skull bearers) who practiced horrible rites. Sankara is credited with reviving Hinduism in such a time when it was becoming fast degenerated.
He studied Vedas, Vedanta, Nyaya(logic) and also Buddhist philosophies such as those of Nagarjuna etc. He particularly criticised and had debates with Buddhist scholars and he is credited to have defeated them. He also had debates with ritualists/dualists within hinduism such as Mandana Mishra and defeated them as well. His strong views against Kapaliks made them his enemies and there were attemts on his life by Kapaliks.
Primarily his doctrine is based on Vedanta (last portions of veda) a name given to Upanisads. Besides Upanisads Vedanta is supposed to be based on two more authorities, Gita and Brahmasutra. Together these are called "Prasthana-trayi" or the three authorities.
(i) Of the Upanisads, Sankara commented on 12 which are considered to be the oldest and most important ones.
(ii) He also wrote a commentary on Bhagavad Gita which is the second "prashthana" or pillar/basis/authority of vedanta.
(iii) His other major commentary was on Brahmasutra originally written by a sage called Badarayana (also called Vyasa). Brahmasutra is the third "prasthana" of vedanta.
He interpreted all these in "Advaitic" way. Vedanta itself branched into three major branches
(i) Advaita (absolute non-dualism) by Sankara
(ii) Vishista-advaita (qualified dualism) by Ramanuja
(iii) Dvaita (dualism) by Madhvacharya
Of these three Advaita is held to be philosophically most sophisticated with Vishista-Advaita a close rival.
1. Saundarya Lahari is actually about Devi, to be precise about "Sri" or "Lalita". It is a major text in "Srividya" tradition. ( Of the ten Mahavidyas that form the core of Shakta tradition, "Srividya" or "Sundari-tantra" and "kali tantra" are usually held as the most important ones. Both are supposed to be fundamentally the same but with different apporoaches. ) Saundarya Lahari has two portions, the first one goes by the name of "Saundarya Lahari" proper, which describes "Sri-Yantra" in poetical although philosophically dense stanzas. Second goes by the name of "Ananda Lahari" which is pure poetics and is not given as much value. The authorship is usually attributed to Sankara, but doubts have been expressed whether the author of Saundarya Lahari is the same Adi Sankara who propounded Advaita.
2. There are many beautiful hymns attributed to Sankara such as "Bhaja Govindam" and "Devi-aparaadha kshama stotram". In the latter the author mentions that he is now eighty five years of age and he desperately needs Devi's grace. Tradition puts Sankara's life span well within 40 years, so again there are doubts whether Sankara who composed these stotras was same as the Adi Sankara.
3. One thing that is normally accepted without dispute is that philosophical works attributed to Sankara such as his commentaries on Upanisads, Gita and works like Viveka Chudamani, Upadesa sahasri etc. really were written by Adi Sankara himself.
4. He was born in Kaladi village in Kerala, in a Saiva Brahmin family.
5. During his time Buddhism in India was in decline and lower tantrik desciplines had gained much ground. Among these were Kapaliks (skull bearers) who practiced horrible rites. Sankara is credited with reviving Hinduism in such a time when it was becoming fast degenerated.
He studied Vedas, Vedanta, Nyaya(logic) and also Buddhist philosophies such as those of Nagarjuna etc. He particularly criticised and had debates with Buddhist scholars and he is credited to have defeated them. He also had debates with ritualists/dualists within hinduism such as Mandana Mishra and defeated them as well. His strong views against Kapaliks made them his enemies and there were attemts on his life by Kapaliks.
Primarily his doctrine is based on Vedanta (last portions of veda) a name given to Upanisads. Besides Upanisads Vedanta is supposed to be based on two more authorities, Gita and Brahmasutra. Together these are called "Prasthana-trayi" or the three authorities.
(i) Of the Upanisads, Sankara commented on 12 which are considered to be the oldest and most important ones.
(ii) He also wrote a commentary on Bhagavad Gita which is the second "prashthana" or pillar/basis/authority of vedanta.
(iii) His other major commentary was on Brahmasutra originally written by a sage called Badarayana (also called Vyasa). Brahmasutra is the third "prasthana" of vedanta.
He interpreted all these in "Advaitic" way. Vedanta itself branched into three major branches
(i) Advaita (absolute non-dualism) by Sankara
(ii) Vishista-advaita (qualified dualism) by Ramanuja
(iii) Dvaita (dualism) by Madhvacharya
Of these three Advaita is held to be philosophically most sophisticated with Vishista-Advaita a close rival.