When one goes into the annals of history it looks like the true Advaita expounded by Sage Sankara and Sage Goudpada was lost or mutilated by the orthodox cult, because their preaching is based on Nonduality and practices are based on duality.
Sage Sankara says in Brahma Sutras:~ 'Brahman is the cause of the world, whereas in Mandukya he denies it. This is because he says that at the lower stage of understanding, the former teaching must be given, for people will get frightened as they cannot understand how the world can be without a cause, but to those in a higher stage, the truth of non-causality can be revealed.
Sage Sankara himself has warned us not to use ambiguous words and to practice semantic analysis in his book "Definition of one's own Self. (Page 199, v.24 of "Sankara's Selected Works)
Bhagavan Buddha found religion in such a worthless state, with so many vile animal sacrifices, that he attacked religion. Sage Sankara did not seek to destroy religion like Bhagavan Buddha, but he advocated reforming it for better. He did this because he saw that the masses had to have some form of religion as they were not ripe intellectually for truth.
Sage Sankara's sex experience in Benares and occupying the body of another man and then having sexual intercourse with his wife, is a story created by pundits hiding the real fact. Sage Sankara had the scientific spirit and when told by Saraswathi the woman that he was talking freely about sex, being a Sanyasi, he wanted to know the truth by having actual intercourse himself and thus learning by experiment and observation. Thus, this has to be viewed by the seeker from a rational standpoint, because sex is part of the illusion on the ultimate standpoint. Sage Sankara stressed the great importance of freeing our use of words from all ambiguity.
Buddhists and Jains did not believe in the Vedic positions, did not accept the scriptures. Hence, Sage Sankara had to meet their objections also. Biographical anecdotes about his persecution of Jains and Buddhists or of his challenges to self-immolation for the loser of a debate are all foolish tales fabricated after his lifetime either by his own followers who took him to be a religious propagator but not as a philosopher or by the dualistic cult.
The religious pundits of the Adavitic sect relate boastfully pseudo-historical stories of how Sage Sankara's school put down, persecuted end exterminated the Buddhists, as though this was something to be proud of. However, these stories are either exaggerations or false stories fabricated by pundits or priestcraft. The religious pundits are mere followers of the religion, never having understood the depth of Advitic philosophy. Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism, and yoga no less than philosophy, to the world.
Sage Sankara's commentary on Manduka is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to the philosophy. North India is the home of mysticism and deification and South India of keen rational truth.
Sage Sankara had only four fully trained disciples, although he advised some kings. His doctrines spread after his lifetime. His books were dictated to assistants as he traveled. So, only a few were capable of understanding his philosophy.
Sage Sri, Sankara always traveled and he never lived in a monastery. He simply instructed his disciples to build one here and there " and then left because he was busy spreading his doctrines.
Some who followed Sage Sankara are blind followers of the orthodoxy, never having understood the Advaitic philosophy are religious scholars not Gnanis, and they are unable to grasp the non-dual -truth.
Sage Sankara says the seeker must first know what is before him. If he cannot know that, what else can he know or understand? If he gives up the external world in his inquiry, he cannot get the whole truth.
Some thinkers hold views of Maya which are entirely incorrect and untenable. They do not know Sankara's Upanishad Bashyas, but only the Brahma Sutra Bashya. The followers of Sage Sankara have constituted a religious sect. Thus, all movements ultimately degenerate.
In the commentary to "Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara says:~ ." "The highest beatitude is not to be attained by Yoga." (Sacred Books of East Series page 298 Vol.1) And he also says Samadhi is the same as sleep (p.312).
~ This clearly indicates that yoga is not the means to self-realization. And yogis Samadhi is not Advaitic wisdom.
Sage Sankara's commentary to Brahma Sutras (Chap.3.4.50) shows that the Gnani "should pass through life", not run away from life, and should take a middle course between seeking worldly honor and worldly abasement.
Sage Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time, he showed just one step forward towards the truth. Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words.
Sage Sankara did more than writing books or initiate Sanyasins: He brought India into unity as a nation. He advised the mass: Worship what they wish, remain in their particular religion but remember they are also part of a larger whole.
Few Pundits have caught the spirit; they are merely fond of his words. Sage Sankara’s spirit is that of an appeal to reason, with scripture dragged in as second and lesser support afterward.
Sage Sankara gave religious, ritual or dogmatic instruction to the mass, but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence, the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus, they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.
Centuries have passed since Sage Sankara appeared, yet it is very hard to find his wisdom understood anywhere in the world today. It is because so few could rise to his level. Hence, the dualistic cults and devotional sects came into existence prospered.
It may not have been possible for him to have written so many books during such a short term of existence of 32 years. The truth is that he wrote very few books. Those actually written by him were Commentaries on Brahma Sutras and the Upanishads and on the Gita. All other books ascribed to him were not written down by his own hand. They are merely collections of notes recorded by his disciples from his sayings, talk, and discussions.
Sage Sankara wrote his commentaries on Manduka Upanishads commentary first, and then as this revealed that he thoroughly understood the subject, his gurus requested him to write the commentary on Badarayana's Brahma Sutras, which was a popular theological work universally studied by Advaitins. That is why his commentary is written from a lower dualistic point, for those who cannot rise higher, save that here and there Sage Sankara occasionally has strewn a few truly Advaitic sentences.
Since, Hinduism is a mixer of many ideologies one gets confused which is true philosophy because the dual, non-dual and qualified non-dual philosophies all claim that they are based on Vedas. And many believe the inherited beliefs of their forefathers are pure and sacred without verifying the facts. All rituals and individualized gods are added from time to time. Only when one tries to go deeper into the annals of history one will be able to find that all the present days’ beliefs and rituals are not part of the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion.
It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till, the uncontradicted truth is obtained.
The seeker must have the courage of Buddha to accept the truth and reject the untruth. Since Buddha rejected religion, the idea of God, and scriptures, therefore, it is evident that he has gone through every aspect and verified and found them to be inadequate and useless for the pursuit of truth.
Even Buddhism is mixed up with regional culture and traditions of the local religion, wherever it existed. Thus to get the full essence of Buddhism is very difficult.
The Buddhist scriptures were completely distorted by the time of Sage Sankara. Sage Sankara had to criticize the Buddhist literature prevailing then as the Buddhists themselves were confused as to what Shunyata is. Vasubandhu and his disciple Dignaga (the latter lived about a couple of centuries before Sage Sankara) could not retain the original teachings of Lord Buddha.
At first Vasubandhu did not agree with his half-brother Asanga and wrote one book on Abhidharma and later on, he went to the side of Asanga and wrote a second book, where? he opposed his own earlier views on Abhidharma. Sage Sankara? had to criticize Buddhist knowledge? and literature of his time as he wanted to bring to us back the Pure Vedantic knowledge through his work on the Prasthanatraya. That is why there is a reference to the writing of Dharmakirti in Sutrabashya.
There is another aspect that:~ In Vishnu Purana also says that Lord Buddha created confusion. In Sarnat, he first taught about the Moral code which is basic. He talked about Anatma. Then? two decades later he taught the concept of Shunyata and? the tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.? Despite Nagarjuna's telling that Shunyata is not Nihilism and that Parajanaparamita also mentioning about the Shunyata after one leaves? the five? skandhas, there are and there will always be people who will go on calling Buddha's philosophy as Nihilism. About the origin of the? Tantric Buddhism also? there are controversies.
Hindus hold Lord Buddha being an Avatara of Lord Vishnu. It seems that in many Buddha viharas, probably more in Sri Lanka, there are statues of Lord Vishnu, which are looked at reverentially. by the Buddhists. Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa also says that there is no doubt about Lord Buddha being an Avatara of Lord Vishnu. Swami Vivekananda tells us about him very superlatively.
Dr. Radhakrishnan says that he was a reformer of Hinduism. Personally, I worship him as the Avatara of Lord Vishnu.
Religion, yoga, and scriptures are for the ignorant masses, who wholly accept the material world as it presents itself. Wisdom is for those who have begun to realize that things are not what they seem.:~Santthosh Kumaar
