Was Guru Nanak's son a follower of the Hindu philosopher Nimbarka?

Question

I live in America, and a few days ago I visited a Vishnu temple near my house. It's called Ved Mandir, and it's run by followers of Gangeshwar Maharaj, whom I had never heard of. So I did a little digging, and I found out that he belongs to a sect called the Udasi sect, which seems to be some sort of mixture of Hinduism and Sikhism. That's because it traces its origins to Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand, who seems to have joined a Hindu Guru Parampara as described in this web page:

Sadgurudev [Gangeshwar] Maharaj is a unique Saint who has obtained Deeksha in the Udaseen Sampradaya of Sanatan-Sant-Parampara. Based on available words, the pravartan of this Sampradaya was done by Bhagwan Vishnu in the form of a Swan Avataar (Paramhans) and the Updesh of this Darshan was given to Shri Sanatkumar, Brahma’s Manasputra(son born out of mind).Muniraj Shri Sanatkumar gave the Updesh to Devarshi Shrautmuni Shri Narad who in turn promoted this Updesh amongst his disciples. Acharya Shri Chandra Bhagwan became an Avataar in the middle of the 16th century in the Shishya-Parampara of Narad-muni. ShriChandra Bhagwan is the son of Adhi-Dharma-Guru of Sikh Bandhus, Shri Nanakdev and is at the level of 165th generation from Shri SanatKumar. These Acharya-Charan have saved again the Udaseen Sampradaya , which was almost lost in time. Paramhans Udaseen-Sant-Shiromani Shri Ramanandji Maharaj who was at the level of 16th generation of ShriChandra Bhagwan’s Shishya-Parampara and whose position is also said to be 181st from the Mool-Purush. Our Aradhya Gurudev Shri Gangeshwaranandji Maharaj, is the disciple of Shri Ramanandji.

So Sri Chand seems to have joined the Parampara of Brahma's son Sanatkumara. But the thing is, he's not the only one in Sanatkumara's Parampara. As I discuss in this question, Vishnu is said to have taught the principles of Vaishnavism to four disciples: Lakshmi, Brahma, Shiva and Sanatkumara. And in turn they started the four main Sampradayas or traditions of Vaishnavism: Sri Sampradayam, Brahma Sampradayam, Rudra Sampradayam, and Kumara Sampradayam.

Now Kumara Sampradaya, the one started by Sanatkumara, is the one that the 12th century philosopher Nimbarkacharya belonged to. For those who don't know, Nimbarkacharya subscribed to a philosophy known as Dvaitadvaita, according to which Brahman is simultaneously the same and different from the Jivatma. In any case, my question is, did Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand belong to the Parampara of Nimbarkacharya?

The only clue we have is that Sri Chand's guru was someone named Avinashi Muni, as described in page 7 of this book:

Sanat Kumar was the first Udasin Acharya. The second was Narad Muni. There were about one hundred sixty five Acharyas in total. In the holy order of the Udasin, Sampradaya Avinashi Muni has the one hundred sixty fourth place and Bhagwan Srichand Baba has one hundred and sixty fifth place.

So is there anything known about who Avinashi Muni's guru was? Was Avinashi Muni in the Parampara of Nimbarkacharya?

Answer 1

It would be the logical conclusion to take. The only problem is that Avinashi Muni doesn’t seem to appear in Udasi literature until around the 1950s when the Udasis of the bada akhara needed to disassociate themselves from the panth of Nanak. This was done for the sake of self-preservation since the SGPC Sikh authorities were trying to take over their deras. The bada akhara Udasis took refuge in Sri Chand’s composition called Matra in which he twice uses the expression ‘guru avinashi’. This means ‘indestructible guru’ ie the Absolute, but they’ve made it the name of an historical character. There is also a line in Guru Granth Sahib which says that the Sanatkumaras became udasi meaning detached. The bada akhara Udasis then linked this to the Hansavatara story and narrated that as their origins, the story shared by the Nimabarka sampradaya. In the 1920s, Nanak was introduced as a member of this lineage having been initiated into the sampradaya; this was said of his successors too. The naya akhara sticks to the account that had been maintained by all Udasis until the early 20th century, that Nanak was Sri Chand’s guru and that the sampradaya started with him on his return from his udasi missionary trips. He then bestowed this responsibility on his elder son Sri Chand.