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Introduction To Vedanta - P. Nagaraja Rao

K. M. MUNSHI

R. R. DIWAKAR

CONTENTS

I. The Scientific outlook and Human Value

II. The nature and function of Philosophy (The Western View)

III. The Spirit and Substance of Indian Philosophy

IV. Approach to Vedanta

V. Sankara’s Advaita

VI. Ramanuja’s Theistic Vedanta

VII. The Philosophy of Shri Madhva

VIII. Vallabha’s Philosophy

IX. The Philosophy of Chaitanya

X. The Philosophy of Saiva-siddhanta

XI. The religion of Vedanta.

Glossary

Select Bibliography

I. Bharatiya Shiksha must ensure that no promising young

Indian of rharjcicr having faith in Bharata anti her culture Bharatiya

Vidya > huofd be l*'t with of modern educational equipment by reason

merely of win of funds.

Bharatiya Shiksha must be formative more than informative,

and cannot have for its end mere acquisition of knowledge. Its

legitimate sphere is not only to develop natural talents but so to shape

them as to enable them to absorb and express the permanent values

of Bharatiya Vidya,

1. Bharatiya Shiksha must take into' account not only the full

'growth of a student’s personality but the totality of his relations and

'lead him to the highest self-fulfilment of which he is capable.

4. Bharatiya Shiksha must involve at some stage or other an

intensive study of Sanskrit of Sanskritk languages and their literature, without cuehiding, ff so desired* the study of other languages -

and literature* ancient and modern.

5. The re-integration of Bharatiya' Vidya, which is the primary

object of Bharatiya 5hiksha, can only be attained through a sl6dy of

forces, * movements, motives, ideas, forms and art of creative Kfc*

energy through which it has expressed »UcU in different ages at >

single continuous prtv^si.

6. Bharatiya > hihsha must stimulate the student's power oi

expression, both written and oral, at every stage in accordance wish

the highest ideals at’jined by the great literary masters in the mtd*

tcctaai and moral spheres

7. The technique of Bharatiya Shiktha most involve-*

(a) the adoption by the teacher of the Guru attitude wlfich

consists in taking l personal interest m the student;

inspiring and encouraging him to achieve distinction

in his vtti hes; entering into his life with a view to

form ideals and remove psychologic)! eh^tjcfes; and

creating in him a spirit of consecration, and

(b) the adoption by the student of the Shi thy a attitude bp

the development of— »

< *) rc< perl for the feather,

(ii) a spirt of inquiry*

(iii) a spirit of service towards the trachu, the ifistil*

tfo. J, B^arata and Bharatiya Vidya.

8 The ultimate a n» of Bhirasya Shftsha is to teach the yrongci

grn*ato*i to apptcc. a'c aid I vc vp to the permanent vahies of

tth irjsjya Vidya wh'wh flowing from the supreme an of creative life-

energy as represented bv Shu Rimachandra, Sh'i Kn*. h" a, Vyaw.

Buddha, and Mahama l»i e eiprett'v! themselves in p-. edern lime*

hi the life of Shri Ra* iAri< hna Pararmbamsj, Swam Dayanaoda

baraswati, and S, wm> V. sekananJa, bhri Aru> r*do asnl Mahatma

Gandhi.

Bharat ya Shiahs while equipping the studtoi with every

kind of scientific and technical framing raost teach The Undent, not

m sacufcc an ancient form or attitude to an unre. t< oi*iu, i passion for

change, not to retain a 'orm or attitude which in the hghi of modern

times can be replaced bv another form or attitude which is a Uu? r

and more effective expression of the spirit of Bharatiya Vidya; 'and

to capture the spirit afresh for each generality to present it to 'die

world.

an nar:

Let noble thoughts come to us from every aide

— Rigveda, I-89-i

BHAVAN’S BOOK UNIVERSITY

General Editors

K. M. MUNSHI

R. R. DIWAKAR

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

BY Dr. P. NAGARAJA RAO, M. A., D. Litt.

Karnatak College f Dharwar.

BHAVAN’S BOOK UNIVERSITY

Organising Committee

Lila vati Munshi — Chairman

K. K. Birla

S. G. Nevatia

J. H. Dave

S. Ramaerishnan

BHA VAN'S BOOK UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA By Dr. P. NAGARAJA RAO, m. a., d. utt.

Karnatah College, Dharwar.

BHARATIYA VEDYA BHA VAN

CHAUPATTY, BOMBAY

t a. » reserved Jby the jmSfeaXeAz

tlVst published in this Series, 19^8"

Price Rs. 2/- Sh 3/6 or $ 0. 90

Rupee Price (outside India) Rs. 2. 25

PRINTED IN INDIA

BY P. H. RAMAN AT ASSOCIATED ADVERTISERS A PRINTERS,

505, ARTHUR ROAD, TARDEO, BOMBAY 7, AND PUBLISHED BY

8. RAMAKR1SHNAN, REGISTRAR# BHARATIYA VtDYA B HA VAN,

BOMBAY 7

GENERAL EDITOR’S PREFACE

The. Bharatiya Vidya Bhauanw that Institute of

Indian Culture in Bombay — needed # Book Univer-

sity, a. series of books which, if read; would 1 servb ‘the 1

purpose* of providing: higher' i education, ’Phrtiiular

emphasis, however^. was-to ibe; put: on such literature

as. revealed the deeper impulsions' of IneUa. -

first istep, it was decided tobring out- in: English 10©

books, 50 of which were to-be’ taken in hand 1 'aifno& t*

at qnce. Each book was t'o contain from u 20G to 250

pages and’ was to be priced' at Rs. ' 2/-- * o'

It is our intention to publish the Books -we. Selbct; -

not. only in English, but also, in the follbwing Twdiati:

languages: Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, ' Tamil; -'

Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. -

This scheme, involving’ the publicatioait bf 1 900

volumes, requires ample funds and an all-I«dlabrga-:

nisation. . The Bhavan is exerting -’its Utmost- 'tb*

supply them. ,

. . The objectives for which the Bhavan stands:, are;

the reintegration of the Indian culture inthO. light bf;

modern knowledge and to suit our present-day heads

and the resuscitation of -its- fundamental ' valuejs ' 'in-

their, pristine Vigour. - Atf

: -Let me make our goal more explicit; 1 -: ii

We seek the dignity of man, Which ' necessarily!

implies: the- creation of social conditions which wbuld

allow him freedom to evolV© along thfe lines of hW owh 1

temperament, and capacities-; weseek the harmony df -

individual efforts ahd social relations, not in tinf’

makeshift way but within the- frame-Work ‘6f ' the 3

Moral Order; we seek the creative art of life, Bjrthje

alchemy of which human lMitatidhs are proj^bSisiVel^ 0

transmuted so that man may become the instrument

of God and is able to see Him in all and all in Him.

The world, we feel, is too much with us. No-

thing would uplift or inspire us so much as the

beauty and aspiration which such books can teach.

: In this series, therefore, the literature of India,

ancient and modern, will be published in a form

easily accessible to all. Books in other literatures of

the world, if they illustrate the principles we stand

for,, will also be included.

This common pool of literature, it is hoped, will

enable the reader, eastern or western, to understand

and Appreciate fcurents of world thought, as also the

movements of the mind in India, which, though they

flow through different linguistic channels, have a

common urge and aspiration.

Fittingly, the Book University’s first venture is

the Mahabharata, summarised by one of the greatest

living Indians, C. Rajagopalachari; the second work

is on a section of it, the Gita by H. V. Divatia, an

eminent jurist and a student of philosophy. Cen-

turies ago, it was proclaimed of the Mahabharata:

**What is not in it, is nowhere. ” After twenty-five

centuries, we can use the same words about it. He

who knows it not, knows not the heights and depths

of the soul; he misses the trials and tragedy and the

beauty and grandeur of life.

The Mahabharata is not a mere epic; it is a

romance, telling the tale of heroic men and women

and of some who were divine; it is a whole literature

in itself, containing a code of life; a philosophy of

social and ethi. cal relations, and speculative thought

on-human problems that is hard to rival; but, above

alh it has for its core the Gita which is, as the world

is beginning to find out, the noblest of scriptures and

the grandest of sagas in which the climax is reached

in the wondrous Apocalypse in the Eleventh Canto.

Through such books alone the harmonies under-

lying true culture, I am convinced, will one day

reconcile the disorders of modern life.

I thank all those who have helped to make this

new branch of the Bhavan’s activity successful.

1, Queen Victoria Road

New Delhi K. M. MUNSHI

3rd October 1951

PREFACE

the present work an attempt is. made to state

the, fundamental tenets of the different Schools of

Vedanta, in a connected manner; interpretation, com-

parison and criticism are. not excluded. The aim of

the. book is to.. give 1 a, comprehensive account of the

philosophical heritage' of Vedanta in all its aspects.

In the first chapter the reader is introduced to a

critique of Science, as a methodology and as the. com-

plex of values: Its limitations and merits are examin-

ed. Next, the nature and function of Philosophy as

conceived by the West is explained. The third chapter

is an account of the “Spirit and Substance of Indian

Philosophy”. Among the Hindus the philosophical

and religious values are conveyed through systems of

philosophy, which are associated with the names of

the great acaryas, Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, etc.

Vedanta in one form or other is the living religion of

the Hindus; hence, some of the general and common

problems of the Vedanta system are discussed in chap-

ter four. The chapters, that follow, present the systems

of Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallabha, Caitanya

and Saiva Siddhanta. The concluding chapter is a

brief account of religion of Vedanta as conceived by

Sankara. There is some repetition in the different

sections of the book and it is not avoided as it secures

a certain completeness of presentation and unity to

the systems. Every system is a living spiritual guide

and represents a way of life.

In ‘the preparation of this work, I owe more

than I can ever express or assess to the writing and

speeches of my Professor, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. I

'thank all those who have in some manner or other

helped me to understand the spirit of the Vedanta

texts. I am deeply thankful to the editors of the

different philosophical journals for the permission to

use and reproduce the material of the articles pub-

lished in their journals. Professor V. M. Inamdar of

the Karnatak College kindly read the proofs and saw

the book through the Press, for which act I thank

him.

My special thanks are due to the executives of

the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for publishing this

volume in their Book University Series.

Dharwar

26th January 1958

P. Nagaraja Rao

Inscribed to the two devotees of Lord Panduranga,

Sri Mysore Swami Kao and Srimati Sant Saraswati Bai, with love, respect and gratitude.

Chapter I.

THE SCIENTIFIC OUTLOOK AND HUMAN VALUE.

In the process of evolution through ages, the

emergence of man marks' a definite epoch. Evolution

is automatic and blind at the inorganic and biological

levels. The inorganic sector of reality is by far the

greatest in extent and it comprises the overwhelming

bulk of the cosmos, including the interstellar space

and material aggregates we call stars. The rate of

change at this level is slow and is due to Physical In-

teraction.

Evolution at the organic level, i. e., the biological

sector, is confined to the surface of our small planet,

the earth. The rate of change at this level is swifter

than at the inorganic level. The general traits of life

are nutrition, variation, growth, reproduction and re-

pair. Nature does all the work for animals and

plants. The mode of change at this level is natural

selection.

To describe man as the highest product of evolu-

tion is a simple, biological fact. Evolution be-

comes self-conscious at the human stage. ‘The

uniqueness of Man’ is the most profound biological

finding of our day. The rate of evolution is enor-

mously accelerated. It is no longer automatic and

blind. Man is described as the trustee of human pro-

gress. He stands at the cross-roads of evolution. It

is for him to progress further or sink back into animal

savagery. Nature does not help him to go on without

his own effort. Men do not bloom like flowers or put

forth fruits as trees do.

Evolution in biology stands for a particular type

of orderly change, namely, the production of new

specific forms of life arising in the process of differen-

tiation and integration through accumulated chance

variations. The progress of human civilisation and

culture is measured in terms of the rational criterion

of value. 1

Man’s uniqueness consists in his power of speech,

imagination and conceptual thought, fte has, in the

words of Lewis Mumford, an extra-organic environ-

ment and a super-organic self. He has become in-

creasingly independent of his environment. He has

altered the face of the earth and gained enormous con-

trol over the forces of Nature. He has glutted the

modern world with marvels.

The achievement of man is the result of his

powers of speech and thought. The word and the

dream are his great. assets. Reason has enabled him

to acquire knowledge, to build on it, to appreciate the

significance of knowledge, to create values, to work

out purposes, to incorporate social and ethical values

into institutions. Language is the greatest invention

of man. Reason is his fundamental asset.

Man’s power of thought has most vigorously ex-

pressed itself in his scientific achievement. Science

is not merely an instrument for man’s material pro-

gress but is also a means for understanding Nature and

man’s place in the universe. It is one of the greatest

achievements of man, the noblest activity and has

given us boundless opportunities to lessen our drud-

gery. It has given inexhaustible material gifts which

have added to the health and resources of the human

community. In the vivid words of Professor Joad,

“we can speak across continents and oceans, instal

television, sets in home, hear Big Ben striking in North

Borneo; photographs speak and sing; x-rays are the

windows through which we observe and snap-shot our

insides; roads are made out of rubber; crops are ripened

by electricity, hair waved by electric current; distance

melts and aeroplane girdles the earth. *’ Further,

Science has given us cheap coal and cotton, revolu-

tionised transport and in a hundred ways changed and

ameliorated the life of man.

To the marvels of wireless, x-rays, are added the

discovery of sulphonamide group of drugs and anti-

biotic specifics like penicillin. The discoveries of the

science of endocrinology and psychiatry prove that ‘a

wise conditioning and the proper supply of the secre-

tions of the ductless glands can cure all the evils of

life. ’ No longer do we believe that demons create

diseases and priests cure them. The mentally deficient

are advised and not condemned. Psychical abnorma-

lities are cured through the methods of hypnosis,

dream-analysis, electric-shock treatment and mental

hygiene. The weak, the wounded and the over-strain-

ed souls turn for comfort to psycho-analysis. The

therapeutic value of the process has given it the pre-

stige of a science. It has banished the concept of sin

from the ethical vocabulary.

It is the spectacular achievement of science and

the marvels of technology that are responsible for the

faith in the omnipotence of science. In the words of

Russell, “one hundred and fifty years of science have

proved more explosive than five thousand years of

pre-scientific culture. ” 2

Science has added to the three values, Truth,

Beauty and Goodness, a fourth called the Useful. It

has produced enough goods for man to live in com-

fort. The rapid advance of scientific technique has out-

matched the necessary social wisdom and enlightened

conscience to use them well. Nature for a very long

time yielded small extensions of licence to him. In

the words of Charles Morgan, “Man in all his fight

with nature, though heroically defiant, was at root

humble. He knew himself outmatched. It did not

occur to him that she, the mighty, the powerful, the

enduring and the stubborn would ever abdicate in

favour of man all her powers. ” 3 This has perplexed

him to the most. The new dispensation of science is

our trouble and man was not prepared for such a wind-

fall. This has led to the dogmatic assertion that each

development of man’s power over nature is beneficent.

The gifts of science and technology are not unquali-

fiedly good in themselves. We have so many un-

desirable elements wrapped up in the gifts of science.

Every addition to human power which science has

put into the hands of man has the chance of misuse.

We are like the new rich who have come into a fortune

but too uneducated to spend it intelligently. 4 Scienti-

fic knowledge is power. More than knowledge and

power, we must know how to use it. Science produces

all things: on the one hand poison gas and atom bomb

and, on the other, penicillin and sulpha drugs. The

question of ends is not the task of science; we need

to know the ends to which they must be used. The

knowledge of good and evil is another branch of

human study. We need that for the proper use of

scientific power. 5

Science has raised many problems, thrown our

minds into confusion and exposed us to temptations

which we are not equipped to withstand. We need,

not only speed but a sense of direction also, if we are to

progress. The soundness of a civilisation is to be judged

by what man does with the gifts of science. Ruskin,

the nineteenth century prophet of social justice,

declared, “no changing of place at a hundred ipiles an

hour, nor making of stuffs a thousand yards a minute,

will make us one whit stronger, happier or wiser.

There was always more in the world than men could

see: they will see it no better for going fast. ... As

for being able to talk from place to place, that is, in-

deed, well and convenient; but suppose you have

originally nothing to say! We shall at last be obliged

to confess, what we should have long known, that the

really precious things are thought and sight and not

pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast and a man,

if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory

is not at all in going but in being. ” 6

5. Leonard Da Vinchi, Note Books, P. 96-97. He writes

(speaking about submarines) “How by an appliance many are

able to remain for some time under water. How and why I do

not describe the method.... this I do not publish or divulge on

account of the evil nature of men who would practise assassination

at the bottom of the sea in- their lowest parts and sinking them

together with the crews. ”

6. John Ruskin, Modem Painters, III, P. 324.

Science has placed us in the ‘power predicament’

as a result of its development through the last two

centuries. We should equip ourselves with such

knowledge as is necessary for a proper use of it. Plato

and the Upanisads declare that the knowledge of good

and evil are absolutely necessary for a proper use of

scientific power. Plato writes, “It is not the life of

knowledge, not even if it included all the sciences, that

creates happiness and well-being, but a single branch

of knowledge — the science of good and evil. If you

exclude this from other branches, medicine will be

equally able to give us health, shoemaking shoes and

weaving clothes. Seamanship will still save life at

sea and strategy win battles. But without the know-

ledge of good and evil, the use and the excellence of

these sciences will be found to have failed us. ” 7

Scientific technique to be properly used, therefore,

requires social and spiritual wisdom.

We have so far examined the limitations of

scientific technique. Science is not mere technique.

It is an outlook on life which goes under the name of

rationalism. As a mode of understanding the world,

it is objective. “It is the result of man’s gradual

understanding, the kind of knowledge we can rely on

in action. It is neither revealed by God, nor spun out

of the head of Aristotle, but is come at by observation

and experiment. ” 8 It is not purely deductive think-

ing. It balances and checks deductive thinking by

observation and experiment.

It is not dogmatic. It suspends its judgment and

does not recklessly, repudiate when evidence is not

there. The impulse to science first arose out of curio-

sity, the desire to know and understand Nature.

Technology or the successful manipulation of Nature

is a later product. What was a camp follower has

assumed command of the forces today.

The scientific frame of mind is unruffled in any

context. The scientist must be critical, impartial,

free from likes and dislikes, disinterested, cautious,

uncommitted, non*assertive and tentative. The

scientific outlook declares that we can arrive at suffi-

ciently probable truth and not always absolutely cer-

tain truths. The scientist is alert, nimble, patient to

doubt, fond to observe, slow to assert and ready to re-

consider.

Science with its definite instruments has measur-

ed a great deal of reality. It does not indent on the

supernatural nor does it take into account those as-

pects of reality that are not measurable. It has

nothing to do with those entities or values that are

supersensuous, hyper-physical and time-transcending.

The scientist 9 abstracts a simplified private universe

from the entire Reality. He arbitrarily chooses those

qualities which his methods allow him to deal with

successfully. The technique leads to astonishing

success. “This success was intoxicating and, with an

illogicality which, in the circumstances, was doubt-

lessly pardonable, made many scientists and philoso-

phers to imagine that this useful abstraction is

Reality itself. ”

We find that science leaves out a good deal. Its

writ does not run in all the realms of life. It incom-

pletely covers life. To many of our questions it has

no answer. It tells us only how things happen and not

why they happen so. It cannot explain values or

the immortal creations of literature. Sir Richard

Livingstone observes, “when we read Homer or Dante

or Shakespeare, listen to a symphony of Beethoven,

gaze at the Parthenon or the paintings in Sistine

chapel, science has little light to throw on what we

feel or why we feel it. More goes to produce the

effect of Leonardo’s Last Supper, than a wall surface,

a variety of paint and the physical constitution of the

human eye: Beethoven’s symphonies are not merely

the wood and metal, catgut and waves of air through

which they pass into the audible sound. ” 10

Further, science cannot tell us the way to pro-

perly use power in the right direction. It again and

again tells us that we should entertain a rational out-

look on life and give up our outmoded ways of life.

The scientific outlook makes a fervent plea for reason.

The powers of thought and reason are considered as

greater than any other human power. But human

experience of the moral situations of life point to the

inefficacy of reason to help us to do the right and

tread the straight path. In man, emotions, instincts,

appetites and urges of the unconscious are very

powerful. The man who knows how to reason well

tells his lies more ingeniously and persuasively than

the uneducated. Cardinal Newman declared, “Quarry

the granite rock with razors or moor the vessel with

a thread of silk; then may you hope with such keen

and delicate instruments as human ^knowledge and

human reason to contend these giants — the passion

and pride of man. ” 11

Mere reason and science by themselves do not go

a long way. There has to be a training which

educates the emotions.

On the theoretical plane science lays great stress

on the analytical outlook. It forgets the role of in-

tuition. Great discoveries are the result of vision and

intuition. Leslie Stephen observes, “Genius begins

where intellect ends; or takes by storm where intellect

has to make elaborate approaches according to the

rules of scientific strategy. One sees Truth and

another demonstrates. ” 12 The extreme method of

analysis disables us from appreciating the work of

art. A. N. Whitehead points out that “when we

understand all about the sun, and all about the atmos-

phere, and all about the radiation of the earth, you

may still miss the radiance of the sunset. ” 13 For that,

we need a deeper intuition of the human spirit.

Hence, Whitehead recommends that we should urge

sciences beyond their delusive air of finality. 14

The rational scientific approach to life yields cer-

tain conclusions and points to a view of life which is

strictly deterministic. The conclusions of mechanis-

tic physics, biology and psycho-analysis make short

work of the cherished values of man and do not give

him the necessary ardent fervour for a moral life.

Freud in his Introductory Lectures on Psycho-ana-

lysis observes that “Humanity has in course of time

to endure from the hands of science several shocks

which undermine its prestige. ” Copernicus declar-

ed that our earth is not the centre of the universe and

by this he abolished the primacy of our planet. The

theory of evolution declared that man is not born, full,

faultless and finished. He is one other complicated

natural object. He is not constructed by Nature upon

any new principle which she has not used in those

less exalted achievements which we call animals. 15

He is not compounded from any different elements.

12. Sir Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library, Vol. Ill, p. 162.

13. A. N. Whitehead, Science and the Modem World, p. 285.

See Wordsworth “our meddling intellect misshapes the beautous

forms of things. We murder to dissect”.

14. A. N. Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, p. 199.

15. Mcdougall, Outline of Psychology, p. 134.

He can be reduced to a few pounds of carbon, a few

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