Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Question re: Gaudapada Karikas.

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vidyasankar Sundaresan • September 10, 1996 


I have a question regarding the gauDapAda kArikAs attached to the mANDUkya
upanishad, that I hope some learned member of this list can clarify. 

I have been told that in the SrI bhAshya, Sri Ramanuja cites kArikA 1.16,
prefacing the quote with the words: "jIvasyaiva hi nirodha.h SrUyate."
Does this mean that he is giving to this quotation the authority of
Sruti? 

To place the question in context, the advaita school considers all the
kArikAs to be the composition of gauDapAda. Hence they are not included
under the term Sruti. On the other hand, the dvaita school of Madhva
considers the first 27 kArikAs to be Sruti, i.e. not composed by a human
author. Is a definitive position on this taken by any of the leading
authors of viSishTAdvaita texts? The seSvara mImAm.sA text of Sri Vedanta
Desika perhaps? 

Regards, 

S. Vidyasankar