Jonathan Chadwick wrote: > You seem to be forgetting that Shantinand was eventually > declared by a later version of the same committee to be > unqualified so he stepped down. > Committees down in Kashi don't get to decide who is a Shankaracharya or not and neither do civil courts in India. In my opinion, and in the opinion of millions of others, the committee appointed Swami Brahmanand to be the Shankaracharya - the committee should have not attempted any other interference after that. Mr. Sundersan agrees with this.
It is clear that Guru Dev wanted one of his own close desciples to succeed him, thus Swami Shantanand who was specified in a will. The will has never been contested in any Indian court of law. But it's really a moot point who is the Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath - the point is that the Mahesh Yogi was obviously much more than a mere clerk. What the Swami Swaroopanand said in the Kropinsky interview was untruthful. In fact, it was the Swaroopanand who was not in the desciplic succession, having gone over to another saint, as you pointed out in your post.
