Revision as of 15:01, 26 July 2017

Sankara vs. Ramanujacharya

Contrarian Views On Reality

Ashok Vohra The Times of India 2013/05/16

The Times of India

There are two opposing core views about the nature of Brahmn, the ultimate reality. Sankara, the supporter of monism, argues that just as the plurality experienced by each one of us in the lived world is an illusion, all the apparent qualities of Brahmn are unreal. The apparent multiplicity is because of avidya or ignorance, nescience. Ultimately, Brahmn is an indescribable, attributeless reality. Anything transcendental is Brahmn.

The average individual might find Sankara’s absolute monism too subtle and abstract to understand, let alone practise. Even Sankara had to make a distinction between practical, phenomenal and transcendental worlds to explain his notion of Brahmn. Sankara’s Brahmn is nirguna, the impersonal Absolute.

Ramanujacharya rejects Sankara’s monism and argues in support of vishishtadvaita or qualified monism that, like Sankara did, upholds that God alone exists but unlike Sankara, argues that God has attributes.

These attributes are not unreal and temporary as Sankara argued but are real and permanent. Their reality and permanence do not affect the oneness of God because they are dependent on God; they have no existence apart from God. They are modes – prakaras, accessories and controlled aspects of the one Brahmn.

Ramanuja, therefore, propagates a saguna, personal God – Ishwara who has the qualities of omnipotence, omniscience and infinite love, manifested in a plurality of forms. The world, with its variety of material forms of existence and individual souls, is not a product of maya, but a real part of Brahmn’s nature. It is the body of the Lord; matter is real, it undergoes real parinama or evolution.

Souls and matter depend on God for their very existence. There is organic unity between God on the one hand and individual soul and matter on the other. However,the two retain their identities. They are interrelated and interconnected like pearls in a necklace or seeds in a pomegranate.

The necklace represents Brahmn and pearls represent the individual souls or matter. The pearls strung on a thread have unity; collectively they form an organic whole, yet each individual pearl has its own unique qualities. Likewise, spirit, matter and God may be seen as one organic whole, still each of them has its unique qualities.

There can be no identity without individuation. Any talk of unity makes no sense unless we recognise difference. Like Hegel, Ramanuja upholds that ‘identity is always qualified by difference. Unity is always in, through and because of diversity. Pure being is pure nothing’. Pure identity and pure difference are unreal. Our knowledge involves distinctions and there is no undifferentiated pure consciousness.

The universe is, therefore, not identical with Brahmn but is pervaded by Brahmn. “From Brahmn the universe comes, by Brahmn it is sustained and into Brahmn it ultimately enters, just as a fish is born in water, lives in water and is ultimately dissolved in water. Still a fish is not water, but a separate entity entirely. In the same way the universe, although existing within Brahmn, is different than Brahmn. Just as a fish can never be water, so the universe can never be Brahmn.’’

Liberation is the outcome of God’s grace obtained by prapatti – absolute self-surrender. The identity-in-difference is maintained even in the state of moksha. According to Ramanuja, moksha means permanent, undisturbed, personal bliss in God’s presence. The liberated soul attains the nature of God; it never becomes identical with Him but lives in fellowship, either serving Him or meditating on Him without losing its individuality.

(The writer is head, department of philosophy, Delhi University.)

Brahmn vis-à-vis worldly duties

The Times of India, Dec 12 2015

Shri Shri Anandamurti   You may ask, “We are ordinary people. If we always keep our selves absorbed in the thought of Brahmn or Universal Consciousness, can we properly attend to our worldly duties?“ Of course you can, and you will do them still more beautifully . For the ideation on Brahmn a person does not have to become a hermit in the forest. Only keep behaving rightly and properly with every manifestation of Brahmn in this universe, with every entity in this world. By “proper behaviour“ is meant that in which there is neither anger nor jealously; and neither attraction nor aversion. You exist in a vast, limitless ocean of rasa or essence. A never-ending, radiant wave of manifestation is surging within and without you and radiating through all ten directions ­ the indescribable vibrational expressions of small and great, accented and unaccented, eternally flowing thought-waves.

Behave properly and reasonably with every expression, with every manifestation of the cosmic mind. But always remember the One, the essence of all these diverse vibrational manifestations. Train yourselves in the ideal of the lily, which blossoms in the mud and has to keep itself engaged in the struggle for existence day in and day out, parrying, bracing and fighting the shocks of muddy water and the force of storms and squalls and various other vicissitudes of fortune; and yet it does not forget the moon above. It keeps its love for the moon constantly alive.

The lily seems but a most ordinary flower: there is nothing extraordinary about it. Yet, this most ordinary little flower has a romantic tie with the great moon. It has focussed all its attention on the moon. Similarly , perhaps you are an ordinary creature ­ perhaps you have to pass your days in the ups and downs of worldly existence ­ yet do not forget that Supreme One. Keep all your attention inclined towards Him. Always keep yourself merged in His thought. Go deep into the mood of that Infinite Love.By this your worldly activities will not be hampered in any way .

No matter what circumstances you find yourself in, never lose sight of the Infinite One. Degradation is impossible for those who have accepted the Supreme Being as the ideal of their lives.

Indulging in mean thoughts only engenders crude vibrations in the citta or mind, as a result of which you will have to take rebirth to suffer the lowly samreated by those crude vibrations. skaras created by those crude vibrations.

Therefore arouse higher vibrations in your citta. Even a man of King Bharata's calibre had to take rebirth as a deer because at the time of his death he was deeply anxious about a fawn. Thus, regardless of what you are at present or what you may possibly become in the future, do not digress from the ideal under any circumstance: do not stray even a step away from the path of realisation of Absolute Bliss. Ananda Marga or the path to eternal bliss is the only path for you.

Whatever be the consequence of your past deeds, your uplift is guaranteed, if you have unflagging zeal to attain Brahmn. Do not look back, look forward. Never take any limited material object for your worship. Accept only the loftiest entity for your contemplation. If your love for Him is genuine, you will ever remain in an Elysian exuberance.Pain will then mean nothing to you, nor will happiness. When one's movement is towards the Great One, when one's ardour is only for the Great One, it is called Prema or Divine Love.

Self-realisation: Hurdles in the path

Hurdles to self-realisation, July 25, 2017: The Hindu

The Brihadaranyaka extols the Supreme Brahman as the Changeless Reality. The entire Prapancham, the earth, fire, air, space and ether are held within the Supreme Brahman; the entire concept of Time seen as the past, present and future is also within this Brahman; and this Brahman stands beyond all Space and Time eternally.

For an individual to internalise this truth and experience Brahman as the atma and the antaratma in the entire creation is a difficult spiritual exercise, pointed out Nochur Sri Venkataraman in a discourse. The story quoted by Sri Ramakrishna illustrates how it is difficult to imbibe subtle truths.

A sishya, taught by a guru to see Narayana swaroopa in all beings and objects, tries to sincerely understand the import of this teaching in daily life. Once, he sees an elephant on the road and goes towards it thinking of his guru’s instruction to see the Lord in it. He does not heed the mahout’s warnings to keep away from it as it is amuck and gets hurt. Is not the mahout also the Lord’s swaroopa?

Many a time, partial understanding of esoteric matters is a natural hurdle to all. The Upanishad goes on to say that the atma in the individual is the subtlest of all, enabling all the complex acts of thought, word and deed. But ignorance makes one think that he sees, or hears, or knows, overlooking that which makes his eyes, or ears or understanding perform their respective functions. To recognise one’s ego, gunas, etc as the manifestations of Prakriti and to see the same Prakriti in the world of creation is crucial if one has to avoid falling into the trap of worldly pulls.

When the dog inside the house barks at a street dog and the latter retorts, the master does not get involved. The wise align with the atma within which stands aloof as a mere witness.

See also

Brahmn, the ultimate reality

Sañkar(a) (ancient philosopher)