Sampradaya Derived From Sankaracarya

[suchandra]

From Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 18:186-212

"Among the Mohammedans was a grave person who was wearing a black dress. People called him a saintly person. The heart of that saintly person softened upon seeing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He wanted to talk to Him and establish impersonal Brahman on the basis of his own scripture, the Koran.

When that person established the impersonal Brahman conception of the Absolute Truth on the basis of the Koran, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu refuted his argument. Whatever arguments he put forward, the Lord refuted them all. Finally the person became stunned and could not speak. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, The Koran has certainly established impersonalism, but at the end it refutes that impersonalism and establishes the personal God.

The Koran accepts the fact that ultimately there is only one God. He is full of opulence, and His bodily complexion is blackish.

 

PURPORT: The revealed scripture of the Mohammedans is the Koran. There is one Mohammedan sampradaya known as the Sufis. The Sufis accept impersonalism, believing in the oneness of the living entity with the Absolute Truth. Their supreme slogan is analahak. The Sufi sampradaya was certainly derived from Sankaracarya's impersonalists.

According to the Koran, the Lord has a supreme, blissful, transcendental body. He is the Absolute Truth, the all-pervading, omniscient and eternal being. He is the origin of everything.

Creation, maintenance and dissolution come from Him. He is the original shelter of all gross and subtle cosmic manifestations.

The Lord is the Supreme Truth worshipable by everyone. He is the cause of all causes. By engaging in His devotional service, the living entity is relieved from material existence.

 

 

 

 

No conditioned soul can get out of material bondage without serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Love at His lotus feet is the ultimate goal of life.

 

PURPORT: According to the Mohammedan scripture, without evadat, offering prayers at a mosque or elsewhere five times daily (namaja), one cannot be successful in life. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu pointed out that in the revealed scripture of the Mohammedans, love of Godhead is the ultimate goal. Karma-yoga and jnana-yoga are certainly described in the Koran, but ultimately the Koran states that the ultimate goal is the offering of prayers to the Supreme Person (evadat).

 

The happiness of liberation, whereby one merges into the Lord's existence, cannot even be compared to a fragment of the transcendental bliss obtained by service unto the Lord's lotus feet.

In the Koran there are descriptions of fruitive activity, speculative knowledge, mystic power and union with the Supreme, but ultimately everything is refuted as the Lord's personal feature and His devotional service is established.

The scholars of the Koran are not very advanced in knowledge. Although there are many methods prescribed, they do not know that the ultimate conclusion should be considered the most powerful.

Seeing your own Koran and deliberating over what is written there, what is your conclusion?

The saintly Mohammedan replied, All that You have said is true. This has certainly been written in the Koran, but our scholars can neither understand nor accept it.

Usually they describe the Lord's impersonal aspect, but they hardly know that the Lord's personal feature is worshipable. They are undoubtedly lacking this knowledge.

 

PURPORT: The saintly Mohammedan admitted that those who were supposedly conversant in the teachings of the Koran could not ultimately understand the essence of the Koran. Because of this, they accepted only the Lord's impersonal feature. Generally they recite and explain this portion only. Although the transcendental body of the Lord is worshipable, most of them are unaware of this.

 

Since You are that very same Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself, please be merciful upon me. I am fallen and unfit.

I have studied the Mohammedan scripture very extensively, but from it I cannot conclusively decide what the ultimate goal of life is or how I can approach it.

Now that I have seen You, my tongue is chanting the Hare Krsna maha mantra. The false prestige I felt from being a learned scholar is now gone.

Saying this, the saintly Mohammedan fell at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and requested Him to speak of life's ultimate goal and the process by which it could be obtained.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu said, Please get up. You have chanted the holy name of Krsna; therefore the sinful reactions you have accrued for many millions of lives are now gone. You are now pure.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu then told all the Mohammedans there, Chant the holy name of Krsna! Chant the holy name of Krsna! As they all began to chant, they were overwhelmed by ecstatic love.

In this way Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu indirectly initiated the saintly Mohammedan by advising him to chant the holy name of Krsna. The Mohammedan's name was changed to Ramadasa. There was also another Pathana Moslem present whose name was Vijuli Khan.

 

PURPORT: After being initiated, the devotees in the Krsna consciousness movement change their names. Whenever a person in the Western world becomes interested in this Krsna consciousness movement, he is initiated by this process. In India we are falsely accused of converting mlecchas and yavanas into the Hindu religion. In India there are many Mayavadi sannyasis known as jagad-guru, although they have hardly visited the whole world. Some are not even sufficiently educated, yet they make accusations against our movement and accuse us of destroying the principles of the Hindu religion by accepting Mohammedans and yavanas as Vaisnavas. Such people are simply envious. We are not spoiling the Hindu system of religion but are simply following in the footsteps of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu by traveling all over the world and accepting those who are interested in understanding Krsna as Krsnadasa or Ramadasa. By the process of a bona fide initiation, their names are changed.

 

Vijuli Khan was very young, and he was the son of the king. All the other Mohammedans, Pathanas, headed by Ramadasa, were his servants.

Vijuli Khan also fell down at the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Lord placed His foot on his head.

Bestowing His mercy upon them in this way, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu left. All the Pathana Mohammedans then became mendicants.

Later these very Pathanas became celebrated as the Pathana Vaisnavas. They toured all over the country and chanted the glorious activities of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Vijuli Khan became a greatly advanced devotee, and his importance was celebrated at every holy place of pilgrimage."

 

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya- lila 18:186-212

[kimfelix]

In his book 'Hindu and Muslim Mysticism', Robert Zaehner suggests that the advaitic tendencies in Sufism arose from contact with Vedanta in India. This, however, would be disputed by most Sufis. But if it is the case then you might reasonably say that Sufi interpretations of the Koran are derived from Shankaracharya.