The Date of Yoga Vashishta

[Guest guest]

Namaste. Shri Gummuluru Murthyji has been separately advising me on

the various books available on 'Yoga Vashishta'. As luck would have

it, the disciple stumbled upon a resource which provided answers to

some of his Guru's questions.Since the subject is of general interest

to Advaitins I am reproducing below my recent mail to Murthyji.

 

QUOTE

 

Namaste Murthyji,

 

I have been able to make some progress on your first question - the

date of Yoga Vashishta. Today I bought the book 'The Vision and the

Way of Vasista' translated by Samvid - the original was written in

Sanskrit by B.L Atreya as 'Vashishta Darshanam'.It is published by

India Heritage trust, Madras. Unfortunately it does not carry an ISBN

no.

 

With arguments running to 6 pages the author concludes as

follows: 'Hence we may place it (the date of Yoga Vashishta)after

Kalidasa and before Bhartrhari i.e. somewhere in the 6 century AD'.

Thus Yoga Vashishta is certainly before Shankara and possibly even

before Gaudapada.

 

That brings me to your second question - why has Shankara not

commented on it? My conjecture is as follows:

 

- The text is too close to the date of Shankara and it is possible

that Shankara was not even aware of it. Though Shankara travelled up

and down India, communications in those times could have been so

rudimentary that such a conclusion does not seem too far fetched.

 

- If the above is true than Shankara should not have commented on any

work that is close to his time. To the extent I know there are only

two exceptions - Shankara's commentary on Mandukya Karikas and

Hastamalakeeyam. But these are no ordinary works - the former is by

Shankara's Guru's Guru and the latter by his disciple. Besides I

understand there are even doubts about Shankara's authorship of the

commentary on Karikas.(vide 'The method of early Advaita Vedanta by

Michael Comans).

 

UNQUOTE

 

Regards, Venkat.