ajAti vAda

impossible without seeing madhyamaka buddhism itself through vedAnta-tinted
glasses. As for the other schools of buddhism such as vijnAnavAda, the
madhyamaka school itself criticizes them for holding views that entail
consciousness as an Absolute. gauDapAda possibly agrees with this evaluation of
the vijnAnavAda school.
• The second error lies in ignoring the fact that advaita vedAnta no doubt developed
to a substantial degree before the time of composition of GK IV. Already in the
paingala upanishad of the Sukla yajurveda, which Sankara quotes in his bhAshya,
there is a detailed exposition of non-duality through the method of adhyAropaapavAda,
(sublation of superimposition). With Sruti being interpreted in this way,
advaita vedAnta, with all its "illusionist" conclusions, follows very naturally: the
ultimate reality of only the substratum is upheld, and the superimposition is
denied an independent reality. Obviously, gauDapAda hails from this vedAntic
tradition, and in his kArikas, he addresses his contemporary mahAyAnists.
It is also important to remember that the development of both mahAyAna buddhism and
vedAnta took place more or less simultaneously, and within the same larger
geographical area. It would be foolhardy to expect that there would not have been some
interaction between the two most powerful streams (brAhmaNa and bauddha) of Indian
philosophical thought. It is clear from the history of Indian philosophical thought that
both brAhmaNa and bauddha sides held steadfastly to their basic axioms, although the
individual systems within each stream held diverse opinions on various philosophical
issues. On the whole, it seems as if reading too much mahAyAna buddhism into the GK
is jumping to conclusions. This is not a chauvinistic defense of advaita vedAnta with
respect to buddhism. I only want to point out that there are many subtle points which
make the two systems very different, although both systems describe Reality as being
beyond name and form. It would be well to remember that the converse criticism, i.e.
that mahAyAna buddhism is but vedAnta clothed in buddhist colors, has been addressed
by as early a buddhist writer as bhAvaviveka (6th century CE).
SANKARACARYA
Transliteration Key
SankarAcArya is arguably the most important philosopher in the history of advaita. The
story of Sankara's life is recounted in traditional works called Sankara-vijayams.
SankarAcArya's guru, govinda-bhagavatpAda, was a disciple of gauDapAda. Just as
SankarAcArya is considered to be an incarnation of Siva, govinda is popularly regarded
as an incarnation of AdiSesha.