Akshobhya TIrtha

[Guest guest]

Dear Fellow MAdhvas:

 

(Below is my response to an AyyangAr gentleman who is

challenging the erudition & scholarship of Hon'ble Dr.

B.N.K.Sharma among other things such the MulubAgil debate)

 

 

Dear Mr. Varadarajan:

 

1. You call A.V. Gopalacharya, a pundit respected by ALL three

schools of VedAnta. I would like a list of Dvaita paNDits who

were his admirers!

 

2. AVG made an irresponsible statement in his intro to the

YAdavAbhyudaya (Srirangam, 1907) that the Advaitins claim

judgment in their favor as expressed in the following way:

 

" akShobhya kShobhayAmAsa vidyoraNyo mahAmuniH "

 

without indicating the source of information! It is totally

unmindful of the fact that the VishiShTAdvaita tradition's views

itself would preclude such a decision!

 

Further, see Dr. B.N.K.Sharma's article in the Annamalai

University Journal Vol.1 pp. 103-107.

 

3. Another thing which might be of interest to you in this

connexion is a VishiShTAdvaitin paNDit in the 1930s named

Desikachari challenged the late pontiff HH SatyadhyAna TIrtha of

the UttarAdi MaTha to a debate. Instead, he got defeated by

HH SatyadhyAna TIrtha and became a MAdhva! HH SatyadhyAna

TIrtha gave him a new name: AKSHOBHYACARYA!! He served as

agent of AbbUr MaTha for many years as a devout MAdhva. THIS

IS VERIFYABLE!!! This is much better than what is falsely

cooked by your Ahobila MaTha that a certain SatyAnanda TIrtha

of UttarAdi MaTha was defeated by one of the Ahobila pontiffs.

No such pontiff existed in 1800s!

 

4. Obviously you do not know too much about Dr. BNK. Not only

was he a super-scholar in his own right, but came from a

distinguished family of scholars who were tutors to the Rajas

of Cochin. He had many " AyyangAr " paNDits as his friends, one

of whom was the late and distinguished Prof. S.S. Raghavachar

of Mysore. Raghavachar's wife is a MAdhva by birth! BNK & SSR

had many encounters and I was witness to quite a few of them

while studying with Dr. BNK.

 

5. You say, Dr. BNK has had many " misconceptions " about the

RAmAnuja tradition? Pray tell me what they are? I would like

to know! If anything, Dr. BNK has clearly pointed out the

grand inconsistencies in RAmAnuja's interpretation of the SUtras

as well as other inconsistencies.

 

Let me give you some:

 

How can an aNusvarUpa jIva (atomic-natured soul) be the

receptacle for vibhusvarUpa Ananda (infinite-natured bliss) in

mokSha (salvation)?

 

Where does it say Brahman=Ishvara+jIva+jaDa? Brahman is God, not

souls & Matter included!

 

In BrahmaSutra 1:1:5 why is RAmAnuja refuting SAnkhya-Yoga? This

is an avirodha adhyAya issue, what place does it have in the

samanvaya adhyAya?

 

When such inconsistencies are pointed out by the learned BNK,

you AyyangArs become incensed. Who is being illogical now!

 

Lastly, why don't you go and debate with HH SuguNendra TIrtha

of the Puttige MaTha of UDupI (who is currently visting the

US). He is only 36 years old, young, erudite & energetic. We

MAdhvas are extremely proud of him. I will let you know when

he will be in the San Francisco area. I will try to be

there myself! Let's thrash it OUT!

 

regards,

B.N.Hebbar