I had to go to Sringeri from 27th to 28th. I had the opportunity to do namaskaram to HH Sringeri Maha Sannidhanam. I handed over Kushagra Ji's poem on Shankaracharya personally. Swami said he will read it.
There were a lot of people over there. I could not really personally talk a lot. I did not stay for the personal meeting that Viswa Sharma had set up later. I could only hand over the paper on "The place of bhakti in Shankara Bhashya" by Prof SS Raghavachar to HH Mahasannidhanam. This is an interesting paper for those who have not read it. see attached.
This paper was an eye-opener for me.
Someone from HUA sent this to me: "
Namaste! I would like you to listen to this from Minute 22 on, where the mahaswami is asserting that Sri Sankara's conception of bhakti is not the same as that of dvaitins and therein lies a lot of confusion. "
In Viveka chudamani, "sva-svarupanusandhanam bhaktirityabhidheeyate" is mentioned as a quick definition of bhakti by Shankaracharya himself. However, in the Gita bhashya of Shankaracharya, the explanation of bhakti is very unique and only a focused study of it with an open mind will give you an interesting outlook. One would wonder, how the term sva-svarupa anusandhanam can be justified with a clear bheda-view of bhakti for the initial as well as a mature bhakti yogi. Prof SS Raghavachar has done a great job in his paper. I request scholars in this forum to critique this paper. I am sure this will be of great value to everyone, irrespective of their firm conviction. After reading this paper carefully, I am sure that you will gain a different perspective on this topic.
Best Regards,
Krishna Kashyap