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NOTES: CHAPTER TWO 390 Bh膩gavata Pur膩峁嘺s and the BG. A member of the Purf order of
艢ankara samnyasins, he was nominally an Advaitin. His
devotional leanings were so strong, however, that the
authoritativeness of his commentaries was questioned by
orthodox non-dualists. Although he held along with Samkara
that the world is a false appearance, he was sufficiently
influenced by Vaisnava thought to adopt certain teachings
that were incompatible with Advaita. Most notable of these
was the notion, typical of theistic Vedanta, of a plurality
of souls that emanate from God like sparks from a fire.
This in itself was enough to disqualify him from
consideration as a strict non-dualist. Madhusudana, in
spite of his advocacy of bhakti, would never have accepted
such a notion. Sridhara also interpreted the concept of
艢akti more realistically than did Samkara or Madhusudana.
Like the BP and the K峁涐梗峁嘺-devotionalists (and Madhusudana in
the BR), he taught that bhakti was a goal superior to mok峁�a,
being possible even after liberation. See Jadunath Sinha,
The Philosophy & Religion of Chaitanya and His Followers
(Calcutta: Sinha Publishing House Private Limited, 1976),
1-11; also Elkman, p. 30, note 15.
pp.
Other, more orthodox writers of post-samkara Advaita
prior to Madhus眉dana saw no need to diverge from the
emphatic subordination of bhakti to j帽膩na envisioned by
their great master. This is understandable, since during
this period they were often engaged in the process of
defending their system against the vigorous attacks of
devotionalists such as R膩m膩nuja and Madhva. On this, see
Mishra, pp. iv, 154-155.
Appaya Di虈k峁�ita, a younger contemporary of
Madhusudana, was a prolific South-Indian writer on Advaita
who also had devotional leanings, in this case toward 艢iva
and the Saiva teachings of Srikantha (ca. eleventh-
thirteenth century). To satisfy his devotional bent, it
seems, Appaya produced a number of works in which he adopted
the point of view of that author, the most important of
these writings being his Siv膩rkama峁噄d墨pik膩, a commentary on
Srikantha's Saiva interpretation of the BS. In his
introduction to this work, he states that, while Sankara's
understanding of the BS is ultimately the most correct, the
desire for the final Advaitic intuition can only come
through the grace of Siva. Therefore, he argues, it is
worthwhile writing a commentary that proclaims the supremacy
of the saguna Brahman. In this devotional mood, Appaya,
like Sridhara, presents a realistic interpretation of sakti
without denying the Advaitin's notion that the world is an
illusion. According to Prof. K. Sivaraman: "In his Siva
rkama峁噄d暮pika and other works such as the Sivadvaitanir峁嘺ya
and the Siv膩nandalahari, Appaya advocates the view of the
identity of the universe with Brahman through cit艣akti [the
supreme Consciousness-energy' of the Absolute]. The only