Farewell for now

Dear readers,

As you all know, this blog was initially started almost 7 years ago with the sole purpose of refuting “cyber scripture experts” like Mahapashupatastra and equally hopeless internet veerashaivas who peddle hurtful lies about Vaishnava gurus and Vaishnavism. We achieved it initially by turning the tables against them, by showing that their own Advaita gurus were originally Vaishnava who were later “morphed” illegitimately into veerashaivas by the hapless followers of Appayya Dikshita and the like. We also showed that Vaishnavism alone is the ultimate purport of the Vedas, Upanishads, Itihasas, Puranas, and Smritis and that this was accepted by neutral scholars. Much of the material in this category was inspired by works such as Paramapadam-residing Sri Puthur Swami’s “Sri Vishnuchitta Vijayam”, “Sankararum Vainavamum”, etc.

Much has been written and discussed in this blog regarding Vishnu paratva. We increasingly feel there is not much more to be said as everything has been established to satisfaction according to us. Additionally, several professional and personal commitments have caught up with us recently. This has very much affected our efficiency at penning new articles as well as reply to user comments. Hence, we would like to suspend all activity on the blog indefinitely. We thank all our readers and commenters. We stop here for now, and the blog no longer accepts new reader comments. We may have left a number of comments unanswered. We duly apologise for that.

As Swami Nampillai says, when the plants are grown, the weeds are removed in the process. Similarly, our focus has always been on establishing the truths of the shAstras, which automatically demolishes false arguments. We hope our readers found our articles beneficial for their sAdhana and reading AchArya srIsUktis.

Some articles still contain a few grammatical errors etc., but nothing deal-breaking -- we believe we have managed to capture the essence of the shAstras.

In case we re-ignite activity on this blog again, we will do so with a journal post and you can subscribe using the RSS feed link. Until then, all articles and comments on the blog are available to read by the public.

Farewell for now.

Jai Sriman Narayana

The Beheading of a Devata and the Pravargya Rite

In the brAhmaNAs, the pravargya ceremony is described. And in the context of that rite, it is also mentioned that some devata got beheaded. The incident is here:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbr/sbe44/sbe44117.htm

This story is repeated in several other places, but the name of the devata always changes. In the Taittiriya Aranyaka, the devata that lost his head is referred to as “Makha Vaishnava” as follows:

“tesham makham vaishnavam yashaH Arcchat” (~ TA 1.7.1-2)

And the devata who lost his head is also referred to as “Makha” here in the Panchavimsa Brahmana:

Validity of Srimad Bhagavatam

Several readers have queried us regarding a particular article written on the Bhagavata Purana, called “Bhagavata Purana Samiksha” - https://kamakotimandali.com/~kamakoti/misc/mahapurana.html. Here, the author seeks to establish that the Devi Bhagavatam is the “true Bhagavatam” and that Shrimad Bhagavatam is an Upapurana. It should be noted that Vedantins of all backgrounds have only admitted that the Shrimad Bhagavatam is the authentic text – any question of authenticity is decided by the acceptance among ancient Vedantins. To that effect, we have the following proofs:

New article: Understanding the Mahabharata - Part 2

We have published a new article on certain important sections of the Mahabharata. Hope this is interesting and clarificatory for our readers.

This is the second part of the Mahabharata series, where we take up 3 sections which elaborate the nature of the Supreme Being (Vishnu), the nature of the realized, subservient self (Shiva) and the nature of the means (PancarAtra). 

Thirugnana Sambandhar and Thirumangai Azhwar

It is well-known that Thirugnana Sambandhar was a great Shiva bhakta, an accomplished tamil poet and the Thevaram contains his devotional outpourings on Shiva. The time period of Shri Thirumangai Azhwar, the last of the great azhwars, coincided with that of Sambandhar and their paths crossed. This write-up aims to bring out the events of that meeting and the consequences thereof.

The traditional narration of the incident is summarized in the following blog – https://guruparamparai.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/thirumangai-azhwar . Quoting from that blog,

Banasura Charitra: Inner Meanings

There are many leelAs of sriman nArAyaNa which highlight several different kalyAna gunams and contain important tattvArthams. These include Draupadi VastrApaharanam, Gajendra Moksham, KAkAsura VriddhAntham, PAndava Dhoothan, etc.

One such incident is BAnAsura Charithram. This episode highlights the veeryam of sriman nArAyaNa in addition to his kalyAna gunams of swAmithvam (ruler of all), parathvam (the supreme), soulabhyam (ease of accessibility) and rakshagatvam (protection).

New Article Published: Chapter 1 of Ishvara Gita Translation

For a while, we talked about publishing an article series on the Ishvara Gita contained in the Kurma Purana (See previous posts: [1][2][3][4][5]). Today, we have published the first chapter. Subsequent chapters will follow.

As we stated in the earlier articles forming the intro to Ishvara Gita, this section is all about Jivatma Upasana. Vishnu haters have tried to take the Ishvara Gita to show Shiva’s supremacy, and hence their claims are also dismantled.

New article published: "Vaishnava-para upabrimhana of certain Shrutis in Puranas"

We are pleased to bring out the next long article we are publishing in our site. If you would like to skip this journal entry and rather read the whole article, here is the link. For those who need a bit of an overview first, you are currently reading a quick introduction.

It covers two topics: “NARADA-BRAHMA SAMVADA IN ANUSHASANIKA PARVAN / NARASIMHA PURANA” and “SHLOKAS ON NARASIMHA IN THE NARADA PURANA”

Prelude to Ishvara Gita - Part V: Jabala Upanishad

The final prelude is the Jabala Upanishad, which is another Upanishad that focuses mainly on Jivātma-Upāsaṇa. The purpose of these five preludes is to enable the readers to be acquainted with Jnāna-Yoga, which makes the understanding of the Ishvara Gita easier.

Prelude to Isvara Gita - Part IV: Kaivalya Upanishad

Having seen jnāna-yoga that is the means to meditate on the self, the meditation of the Atharvasiras in which the Pāśupata-Vrata is enjoined to attain dispassion for material objects and discrimination of the self from the body, and the instance of the practice of such upāsana in the kūrma purāṇa, let us look at a couple of Upanishads which focus solely on these topics.

One such Upanishad is the Kaivalya Upanishad. The term “Kaivalya” itself denotes aloofness from prakrti – it refers to the pure state of the liberated self that has no connection with karmas.

Prelude to Ishvara Gita - Part III: Kurma Purana Purva Bhaga - RISHI ŚVETĀŚVATARA and the PĀŚUPATA VRATA

So far, we have seen Jnāna Yoga, the means to attain the experience of the self as well as the Upasana of Rudra-Shariraka-Paramatma in the Atharvasiras that has the paśupata vrata as an accessory . There is an interesting section on the Upasana of Śvetāśvatara maharishi which is linked to the Atharvasiras and the Ishvara Gita, the latter being a pending publication for the blog. So, this section is described here.

Who was Śvetāśvatara maharishi? The identity can be ascertained from the name itself. According to Sri Mahacharya, it is “śvetena aśvena tarati iti śvetāśvatara” – One who has Hayagriva as his means. The name of this rishi itself indicates he was a hayagrīva-upāsaka. So, the vaishnavatva of this rishi is self-evident.

Prelude to Ishvara Gita - Part II: A Summary of Atharvashira Upanishad

In a previous journal post, we published a short article on the Jnana Yoga and stated that it forms an important prelude to an upcoming article on the Ishvara Gita. This post serves to provide another important prelude to the article, involving a summary of Atharvashira Upanishad. This is because the upAsana detailed in this Upanishad is related to the AtmopAsana detailed in the Ishvara Gita.

Prelude to the Ishvara Gita - Jnana Yoga

We will soon be publishing a translation of the Ishvara Gita from the Kurma Purana on this blog. As it is a complicated text, we thought it would be wise to release a series of smaller articles as preludes, to enable an understanding of the fundamentals that the work is based on. This is the first of the preludes. Here, we will explain what Jnana-Yoga is according to the Shastra, as it is relevant to the Ishvara Gita.

New Article: Part II continuation of "Sridhara, Anugita, and Miscellaneous Topics"

This journal entry is about the latest article titled “Sridhara, Anugita, and Miscellaneous Topics: Part II”.

Part I of this two-part article focused on Sridhara Swami’s commentaries on Vishnu and Bhagavata Puranas.

There are Vishnu/Vaishnava haters who similarly misinterpret the Anu Gita and other sections of the shAstra to show that Shiva is supreme. We have written up the second part focusing these issues.

New Article: Sridhara Swamin's position

Our latest article discusses the issue of Hari-Hara aikya vAda and shows how Sridhara Swamin has upheld Vishnu's Supremacy without compromising, in his commentaries on both bhAgavata and Vishnu Purana.

In this article, we highlight portions from Sridhara Swamin's commentaries that our adversaries are conveniently silent upon. Using this, we show how to consistently interpret the whole of the Advaita gurus' works. Also, we have quoted important portions from the Narayaneeyam of Narayana Bhattathiri that our hari-hara aikya vAdin friends cannot deny.

Analysis of Sauptika Parva

Introduction

In the Sauptika Parva, Ashwattama performs a tAmasic penance to Rudra to gain the power to kill the pAndavas. Rudra appears before Ashwattama and says:

satyaśaucārjava tyāgais tapasā niyamena ca kṣāntyā bhaktyā ca dhṛtyā ca buddhyā ca vacasā tathā

yathāvad aham ārāddhaḥ kṛṣṇenākliṣṭakarmaṇā

Here, Rudra says he has been worshipped by Krishna.

Our Shaivite friends, as usual ignoring context and meaning, take this shlOka and try to make out that Krishna worshipped Rudra as the supreme. So, let us address this.

Tamasa Puranas: Additional Content Analysis

Dear all,

We have been reading the actual shlokas from shiva purANa, linga purANa, etc that describe the tAmasic incidents like lingOdbhava, Siva-pUja using vishNu's eye, etc. It is very amusing to see that if Shaivas were to claim these incidents as pramANa, then they have to accept the supremacy of Hari in some way. Because these purANAs, while trying to deny his supremacy, inadvertently reveal his supreme attributes here and there even in those incidents!

Sri Bhishma Stavam

Dear all,

While digging up material for my study of the Ishvara gIta in the kUrma purANa, I came upon this. In the Santi parva of theMahabhArata, there is a touching stOtra by shrI bhIshmAchArya. He recognizes the Lord nArAyaNa as the Supreme Being, and as krishNa who is standing before him.

First post under "journal" section

Dear readers,

From now on, this is where you will find latest updates about new articles/pages, small articles, interesting information about pUrvAcAryas' works, additional thoughts about existing articles/pages etc.