Gaudapada and Maya

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>"Nitin Trasi" <ntrasi

>

>Re:Advaitin 429

>Anand Natarajan wrote:

>

>I dont think Sri Gaudpapada was the Guru of Sri Shankaracharya. The Guru

>of Sri Shankaracharya is Sri Govindacharya whose guru was Sri Gaudapada.

>Sri Gaudapada is most famous for his Mandukya Karika, his exposition on the

>Mandukya upanishad. Interestingly the Mandukya upanishad(one of the major

>ten) has only 13 verses in it. However these 13 are extremely profound.

>Gaudapada's explanation is supposed to be an authority on Mandukya

>Upanishad.

>--------------------------

>

>Dear Anand,

>

>You are right and so am I. I wrote that Sri Gaudapada was Sri

>Shankaracharya's guru's guru. And yes, it is the Mandukya Karika that

>contains his teaching of Advaita.

>

>Best wishes,

>

>Nitin

 

I am not sure if it was Nitin or someone else who mentioned that the concept

of Maya was first propounded by Adi Sankara. Actually, there are references

to Maya in the Upanishads (I don't recall which ones) and Maya became

popular because of the Madhyamika school of Buddhism founded by Sri

Nagarjuna. Gaudapada, in his kArikas on Mandukya Up. does in fact make use

of Maya so it would be incorrect to say he wasn't aware of it. And it wasn't

Adi Sankara, at least in Advaita school, who first used it. In fact,

Gaudapada fought the Madhyamikas using their very own concepts combined with

his peerless logic!

 

Sankara's Guru was Sri Govind Bhagawatpada. Gaudapada was his paramaguru.

For more information on Gaudapada, please see an excellent post by Sri

Vidyasankar Sundaresan at

http://www.hindunet.org/alt_hindu/1994/msg00403.html

 

Also, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan's Indian Philosophy II gives a very concise ,

although at times abstruse, picture of Advaita Vedanta of Sankara, and

discusses Gaudapada's handling of the Madhyamika school as well as his views

on Maya.

 

As far as I understand, the difference between Sankaracharya's and

Gaudapada's handling of Advaita is in the separation of the Dreaming and

waking states of the former and the insistance of non-difference [in these]

by the former.

 

Please correct any misunderstood concepts.

 

ashish