Sage Sankara had to criticize the Buddhist literature prevailing then as the Buddhists themselves were confused as to what Shunyata is.+

Advaitic wisdom is nothing to do with Hinduism or Buddhism. Bhagavan Buddha and Sage  Sankara restrained themselves parting the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to the ignorant populace and only a selected few.

Bhagavad Gita says: ~ Among thousands of men, scarcely one strives for perfection; and of those who strive and succeed, scarcely one knows the ‘Self’ in truth.

Bhagvan Buddha found religion in such a worthless state, with so many vile animal sacrifices, that he attacked religion.  Sage Sankara did not seek to destroy religion like Bhagvan Buddha but he advocated reforming it for better. He did this because he saw that the masses had to have some form of religion as they were not ripe intellectually for truth. 

Sage  Sankara's sex experience in Benares and occupying the body of another man and then having sexual intercourse with his wife, is a story created by pundits hiding the real fact. Sage Sankara had the scientific spirit and when told by Saraswati the woman that he was talking freely about sex, being a Sanyasi, he wanted to know the truth by having actual intercourse himself and thus learning by experiment and observation. Thus, this has to be viewed by the seeker from a rational standpoint, because sex is part of the illusion from the ultimate standpoint.   Sage Sankara stressed the great importance of freeing our use of words from all ambiguity. 

Buddhists and Jains did not believe in the Vedic positions, did not accept the scriptures. Hence, Sage Sankara had to meet their objections also.  Biographical anecdotes about his persecution of Jains and Buddhists or of his challenges to “Self’ -immolation for the loser of a debate are all foolish tales fabricated after his lifetime either by his own followers who took him to be a religious propagator but not as a  philosopher or by the dualistic cult. 

Dalai Lama said:~ Buddhism need not be the best religion though it is most scientific and religion and inquisitive. But Buddhism has no answer to certain questions like the existence of Atama [soul] and rebirth. Dali Lama said that as an individual he believes in rebirth as he had come across a few cases of rebirth. Modern science, Dalai Lama hoped would unearth the mystery behind the rebirth. (In DH –dec-212009-Gulbarga).

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The same way all religions of the world and all philosophies of the world are based on individuality (ego) find no answers for many questions. Truth seekers all over the world are trying to find answers for themselves, and they imagine and write articles and books on their ideas and others will read and blindly accept them as the ultimate truth.

There is no need to condemn anyone's’ views and ideas or writing, but without being judgmental, the seeker has to verify whether the author is speaking from the standpoint of ego, or whether he is speaking from the standpoint of Soul, the   Self. 

If his views are based on the standpoint of the physical self (ego), then there is many doubts and confusion. If his views are based on the Soul, the  Self then there is no confusion and doubts of any sort. 

Nothing has to be accepted without verifying the validity of any claim in the pursuit of truth. Only uncontradictable truth has to be accepted as the truth. There is no need to condemn any religion or any saints or sages, but the seeker has to think beyond religion, scriptures and individualized Gods. 

It is difficult to understand assimilate within a framework of some teaching or holding some philosophy as a yardstick. We have to drop all our accumulated dross to understand and assimilate and realize the Advaitic truth. 

I am highlighting some scriptural citations only to show the seeker that the Advaitic Sages themselves declare that scriptures, religion, and ideas of God are unimportant in pursuit of truth. It is easier to understand, assimilate and realize the ultimate truth or non-dualistic truth by rationalizing our views and understanding:-

There is only the mind that is present in the form of the universe. Thus, we have to investigate the world that confronts us.

The consciousness is that which knows everything, that which sees. The consciousness alone remains after one gets rid of all thoughts and ideas by identification with the Soul, the Self. The consciousness is only the seer; it is not Brahman that is an error. It becomes Brahman only after the soulcentric reasoning.

Remember:~

In India Advaita and Dvaita is merely a religious tradition, which they inherited from their ancestors. No one questions their validity because it is considered blasphemy to question their religion, their Guru, and Godmen or the pundits. 

People who are attached to their religious code of conduct and trying to preach Advaita, that is mixing the individual life, and the concept of God and all mixed up hotchpotch religious doctrine and feed the seeking people are themselves not aware of the fact that the individuality and their worldly life is part of the illusion

The religious pundits of Advaitic sect relate boastfully pseudo-historical stories of how Sage  Sankara's school put down, persecuted end exterminated the Buddhists, as though this was something to be proud of. However, these stories are either exaggerations or false stories fabricated by pundits or priestcraft. The religious pundits are mere followers of the religion, never having understood the depth of Advaitic philosophy. Sage Sankara gave religion and scholasticism and yoga no less than philosophy, to the world. 

His commentary on Mandukya is pure philosophy, but many of his other books are presented from a religious standpoint to help those who cannot rise up to philosophy.  North India is the home of mysticism and deification and South India of keen rational truth.

Sage Sankara had only four fully trained disciples, although he advised some kings. His doctrines spread after his lifetime. His books were dictated to assistants as he traveled. So, only a few were capable of understanding his philosophy. 

Sage Sankara always traveled and he never lived in a monastery. He simply instructed his disciples to build one here and there " and then left because he was busy spreading his doctrines. 

In the commentary to "Brahma Sutras Sage Sankara says: ~." "The highest beatitude is not to be attained by Yoga." (Sacred Books of East Series page 298 Vol.1)   And he also says Samadhi is the same as sleep (p.312).

~ This clearly indicates that yoga is not the means to “Self’ -realization.  And yogis Samadhi is not nondual wisdom.

Sage Sankara's commentary to Brahma Sutras (Chap.3.4.50) shows that the Gnani "should pass through life", not run away from life and should take a middle course between seeking worldly honor and worldly abasement. 

Sage Sankara did more than writing books or initiate Sannyasins: He brought India into unity as a nation. He advised the mass: Worship what they wish, remain in their particular religion but remember they are also part of a larger whole. 

Few Pundits have caught the spirit; they are merely fond of his words.  Sage  Sankara’s Spirit is that of an appeal to reason, with scripture dragged in as second and lesser support afterward. 

It may not have been possible for him to have written so many books during such a short term of existence of 32 years. The truth is that he wrote very few books. Those actually written by him were Commentaries on Brahma Sutras and the Upanishads and on the Gita. All other books ascribed to him were not written down by his own hand. They are merely collections of notes recorded by his disciples from his sayings, talk, and discussions. 

Sage Sankara wrote his commentaries on Manduka's commentary first, and then as this revealed that he thoroughly understood the subject, his Gurus requested him to write the commentary on Badarayana's Brahma Sutras, which was a popular theological work universally studied by Advaitins. That is why his commentary is written from a lower dualistic point, for those who cannot rise higher, save that here and there Sage  Sankara occasionally has strewn a few truly Advaitic sentences. 

Remember:~

Since, Hinduism is a mixer of many ideologies one gets confused which is true philosophy because the dual, nondual and qualified non-dual philosophies all claim that they are based on Vedas.  And many believe their inherited beliefs of their forefathers are pure and sacred without verifying the facts. All rituals and individualized gods are added from time to time.  Only when one tries to go deeper into the annals of history one will be able to find that all the present days’ beliefs and rituals are not part of the Santana Dharma or Vedic religion. 

 It is necessary for the seeker to do his homework, and verify the validity of all the claims, rather than blindly believe, what others expound as knowledge, till, the un-contradicted truth is obtained.

The seeker must have the courage of Buddha to accept the truth and reject the untruth. Since Buddha rejected religion, the idea of god and scriptures, therefore, it is evident that he has gone through every aspect and verified and found them to be inadequate and useless for the pursuit of truth.

Even Buddhism is mixed up with regional culture and traditions of the local religion, wherever it existed. Thus to get the full essence of Buddhism is very difficult.

The Buddhist scriptures were completely distorted by the time of Sage Sankara. Sage  Sankara had to criticize the Buddhist literature prevailing then as the Buddhists themselves were confused as to what Shunyata is. Vasubandhu and his disciple Dignaga (the latter lived about a couple of centuries before Sage Sankara) could not retain the original teachings of Bhagvan Buddha.

At first Vasubandhu did not agree with his half-brother Asanga and wrote one book on Abhidharma and later on, he went to the side of Asanga and wrote a second book, where? he opposed his own earlier views on Abhidharma.  Sage Sankara? had to criticize Buddhist knowledge? and literature of his time as he wanted to bring to us back the Pure Vedantic knowledge through his work on the Prasthanatraya. That is why there is a reference to the writing of Dharmakirti in Sutrabashya.

There is another aspect that in ~   Vishnu Purana also says that Bhagvan Buddha created confusion. In Sarnath, he first taught about the Moral code which is basic. He talked about Anatma. Then? two decades later he taught the concept of Shunyata and? the tenets of Mahayana Buddhism.? In spite of Nagarjuna's telling that Shunyata is not Nihilism and that Parajanaparamita also mentioning about the Shunyata after one leaves? the five? Skandhas, there are and there will always be people who will go on calling Buddha's philosophy as Nihilism. There are also controversies about the origin of Tantric Buddhism.

Hindus hold Bhagvan  Buddha being an Avatara of Lord Vishnu. It seems that in many Buddha viharas, probably more in Sri Lanka, there are statues of Lord Vishnu, which are looked at reverentially. by the Buddhists.  Ramakrishna Paramahansa also says that there is no doubt about Lord Buddha being an Avatara of Lord Vishnu. Swami Vivekananda tells us about him very superlatively. Dr. Radhakrishan says that he was a reformer of Hinduism. Personally, I worship him as the Avatara of Lord Vishnu.

The religion, yoga, and scriptures are for the ignorant masses, who wholly accept the material world as it presents itself. Atmic path is for those who have begun to realize that things are not what they seem.

The intellectuals approach is more practical, and they stuck with the reality of the practical life within the practical world, and they take it as a real therefore it is difficult for them to realize the truth, which is beyond the form, time and space.

The world is a reality on the base of the ego (you). Whatever one feels as a person is a reality in the world. 

The world, in which you exist, is present only when the waking experience is present.  If the world in which you exist is taken as a reality then there is no meaning in seeking the truth, because he has accepted the world as truth.  Once the world in which you exist is accepted as a reality than the experiences of birth, life, and death which happens within the world prevail as a reality.

The seeker has to learn to view and judge the three states from standpoint of the Soul, the “Self’, then only he becomes aware of the illusory nature of the world,  in which he exists (waking). : ~ Santthosh Kumaar