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According to the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, when Sri Chaitanya was in Varanasi, he defeated Prakashananda Saraswati, the famous Vedantin. Showing this event, Vaishnavas claim that their philosophy is superior to Advaita Vedanta.

My question is, who is Prakashananda Saraswati? Was he an authority in Advaita Vedanta? Did he belong to the Guru Shishya lineage established by Shankaracharya?

If he is not, then by defeating a random guy, somebody cannot claim the superiority of their school.

Amritendu Mukhopadhyay
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    There is a Prakasanada who was a traditional advaitin, who composed a work called vedAnta-siddhAnta-muktAvali. He contributed a lot to the dRshTi-sRshTi vAda branch of advaita. I do not know if it is the same Prakasananda referred in the question. I generally take claims of school X defeating school Y in such-and-such debates, with a pinch of salt. –  May 22 '21 at 09:05
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    @alsoran Thanks. Yes, there is a brief biography of his here. http://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/articles/Preceptors%20of%20Advaita%20-%2035.html. There is no mention of him being defeated. Further, he is referred to with praise by Appayya Dikshita. – GIRIBLR May 22 '21 at 12:01
  • Chaitanyadeva's paramaguru was Madhavendra Puri of Dvaita lineage. So Gaudiya Vaishnavas cite the works of Madhva, Vyasatirtha & Jayatirtha to refute Advaita. Then Mahaprabhu's biography 'Chaitanyacharitamrita' records him defeating the Dvaita scholars at a debate in Udupi. So the chronology becomes Advaita < Dvaita < Achintyavedabheda. – অনু Oct 21 '21 at 13:28
  • The Gaudiyas, who are primarily supposed to be Vaishnavites, primarily reject Vaishnava literature to fit their narrative: 1. They reject Yoga Vasistha, 2. They reject Uttara Gita 3. They reject Dattatreya Yoga Samhita 4. They reject the doctrines of Buddha 5. They reject the doctrines of Yajnavalkya & Ashtavakra (The guru of Janaka that Krishna praises in Ch-2&3 of BG itself) and so on. The only difference is that Advaita (non-dual) accepts them all as different schools of non-duality. Even if there is any superiority established (very unlikely), it is very narrow and not useful. – User 29449 Dec 25 '23 at 06:43
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    @AbhasKumarSinha Yoga Vasishtha is an Advaita text. However, Gaudiya Vaishnavas follow rigorously the two most important Vaishnava texts Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavat Mahapuran. – Amritendu Mukhopadhyay Dec 25 '23 at 15:14
  • @AmritenduMukhopadhyay The problem is that they reject Vaishnava texts too that are advaitic in nature. – User 29449 Dec 25 '23 at 15:27
  • @AbhasKumarSinha See, Gaudiya Vaishnavism (Achintya bhedabhed vada) is one of the schools of Vedanta. There are a total of 7 schools of Vedanta philosophy. Advaita is the oldest Vedanta school. As Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a rival school, it will obviously reject the Advaitic texts. Is it not normal? – Amritendu Mukhopadhyay Dec 28 '23 at 07:04
  • @AmritenduMukhopadhyay I'm not aware of Gaudiya Vaishnavism school being Vedantic, in the sense that they reject a certain class of Upanishads and concepts such as Kaivalya Samadhi (or Vairagya), Raja Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Anahata Nada, etc, that are pretty much on Upanishads. They rely on Madhavachara's 13 principal commentaries that reference to Puranas (circular?) for their metaphysics. Unlike them, all shatdarshnas do explicitly explain these concepts with their formulations (This is the best I've understood so far). – User 29449 Dec 28 '23 at 09:09
  • @AbhasKumarSinha They have their interpretation of Brahma sutra Bhashya - the principal Vedantic text. Each Shad Darshana school have their own sutra texts. For Vedanta school, the Brahma sutra is the text. Each seven schools have their own interpretations. That's why they are different. Gaudiya Vaishnavas also have their interpretation. So they are Vedanta school. – Amritendu Mukhopadhyay Dec 28 '23 at 12:32
  • @AmritenduMukhopadhyay Okay, if we consider Brahma sutras as the central authority of Vedanta, it is a very valid way of Vedas. But if we look into the greater picture, then we are in trouble. Advaita Vedanta is not only limited to Vedanta texts, it extends far to tantric sides too explaining very wide phenomena up to Buddhism to a great extent. But again, this could be taken as an advantage of advaita vedanta over other paths. Gaudiyas don't score well here either. – User 29449 Dec 28 '23 at 12:50

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Don't know about that story but here are some points from scripture that are used to justify superiority -

  1. As stated on this webpage - Apart from the Padma Purana, does any other Purana say that Adi Shankaracharya will teach mayavadi philosophy? - There are puranas which talk about Shankara spreading false doctrine.

  2. Vedanta is rejected by Shaivas and Shaktas. So it has no validity anyway for a lot of Hindus.

  3. Gaudiyas believe in Brahma Samhita "I adore the primeval Lord Govinda [Krishna, Vishnu], of whom Lord Shiva is a transformation for performing the work of destruction." Since Shankara was supposed to be Shiva what he says is less authentic.

  4. Bhagavad Gita says Shiva is just a part of Krishna and his body in 2 places (BG 11.5-11.16)

  5. The believe in Vaishnav Puraan which say Shiva is Tamasic or weaker than Vishnu or defeated by Krishna or scared of Rama etc. So Shankara is obviously less credible than Vishnu or Krishna avatar.

R. Kaushik
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  • You shouldn't post multiple answers. Edit existing answer – The Destroyer May 24 '21 at 15:21
  • I said generally not to post multiple answers for same question. Now since other answer is like clarification, i deleted it as not answer. You can retain this answer. Wrong answers won't be deleted. They are downvoted on SE sites. Mod doesn't see technicalities of answers. Mods can only see if answers attempt to answer or not (even if wrong). – The Destroyer May 24 '21 at 15:29
  • @TheDestroyer I did not post multiple answers here I don't know what you deleted!!? – R. Kaushik May 24 '21 at 15:33
  • @R.Kaushik There was one more guy. He first posted multiples answers. Then after the deletion of his 2nd answer, he edited his first answer. Unfortunately, that was not an answer at all. He was a new member. So I can understand. The moderator has deleted that answer too as it was not really an answer. – Amritendu Mukhopadhyay May 24 '21 at 17:04
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    2)Wrong! This is the reason Shankaracharya rejected all Vaishnava and Shaiva Agamas. Upanishads are the heart of Hinduism. – Sethu Srivatsa Koduru Jun 23 '21 at 02:08