Introduction To Vedanta - P. Nagaraja Rao 9 страница

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whose passions sleep subdued. ” Shakespeare ex-

presses the same thing:

Blessed are those

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled

They are not a pipe for fortune’s fingers

To sound what stop she please

Give me that man, that is not passions’ slave

Ay, I will wear him in my heart’s core.

Or in my heart of heart.

With self-control starts the performance of moral

duties. Life according to Dharma is possible only for

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

those that have tamed the ape and the tiger in them.

The Dharmic life serves two purposes, the welfare of

society and the individual’s spiritual progress.

Dharma is the operating force for integration and

coordination. It is the mediating and corrective

principle in the cosmic mechanism. Dharma supports

or upholds the world of living beings. 'It is the con-

scious adoption of the principles of perfect life in the

world. Dharma is not an abstract ideal. It is not a

mere set of rules. It is the universal law. It sustains

society, it permeates all. What is contrary to it

perishes. It is unethical to transgress Dharma. It

restores spiritual harmony. It is the kingdom of God

on earth.

To live the Dharmic life the Vedantin enjoins on

man a scheme of duties. Through the discharge of dif-

ferent duties man fulfils his Dharma and grows to

his perfection. There should be no divorce between

practice and precept. Moral life does not grow like

grass. It involves a strict discipline. The practice of

certain virtues is enjoined on all. These virtues are

called Sadharana Dharmas. They are common human

virtues. They must be practised by all.

Besides these duties, every individual is asked

to practise some additional virtues which belong to

him on account of his station and temperament

(asrama and varna).

Individual and social morality are fitted into

the scheme of training to enable the individual to

attain spiritual realisation. The role of karma in Ad-

vaita is directed to achieve two purposes, social wel-

fare and the cleansing of the individual mind of all

selfish desires. It removes all those instinctive tend-

encies in man that make him yield to selfish desires.

SAflKARA’S ADVAITA

11T

Social duties are a great check on the unbridled sel-

fishness of man. The scheme of social morality which

differs from individual to individual and also differs

in the different stages of man’s life is of great psy-

chological value. All are not asked to follow the same

discipline. Temperamental differences and intellec-

tual maturity are given due consideration in the pres-

cription of duties. The varnasrama dharma is an

educational formula devised with a view to securing

the sound upkeep of social organisation and civic co-

hesion. It takes into account the differences in the

temper and the talents of men and does not force all

into one way. It has provided ample room for the dif-

ferences in the aptitudes and the abilities of man. It

aims to secure the highest degree of co-ordination and

avoids social waste. It stands for ordered freedom. It

envisages a society which is neither capitalistic, gov-

erned by unregulated free enterprise, nor regimented.

It does not stand for class domination as it is often

misunderstood by our Communist friends. It is not

a camouflage for domination and exploitation of

others.

Ethical life is an indispensable step for spiritual

realisation. The good life can never be bypassed.

Spiritual realisation is not for him who has not acquir-

ed moral excellence. The Katha Upanisad declares:

“Not he who has not desisted from evil ways, not he

who is not tranquil, not he who is not concentrated in

mind, not even he whose mind is not composed can

reach the Self through self-knowledge. ”

The pursuit of Vedanta is to be undertaken by

the aspirant after acquiring certain preliminary vir-

tues. Sankara outlines the preliminary discipine. It

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

consists of the control of the mind and control of

senses (sama and dama). They stand for temperance

of thought. Renunciation of acts follows in a spirit

of fortitude ( uparati ) and ( titiksd ). These indicate a

form of courage in enduring pain and pleasure. The

fifth characteristic is a certain degree r of concentra-

tion on the ideal. It is called samadh& na. The last

of the characteristics is the Faith in the philosophical

ideal imparted in the Sdstras. It is called sraddha.

The spiritual aspirant must learn the Vedantic

teaching from an enlightened and illumined guru and

not through self-study. The Upanisad declares “he

that has a guru knows. ” “And to know the truth

the aspirant must approach the guru that is wise and

devoted to Brahman with fuel in his hands. ” The

acceptance of the guru is obligatory on all. All verile

spiritual traditions have proclaimed the necessity of

a guru. It is not a convention or a formality or an

evasion of responsibility. Sankara reiterates it in his

commentary on the above cited passage. “He must

necessarily approach the guru who is characterised

by composure of mind, self-control, love, etc. Even

one that is well-versed in the sastras should not set

about seeking Brahman by himself. That is the force

of the affirmative particle eva in the word gurumev a

in the above passage. ”

What is learnt from the guru through sravana

might not impress us. We have to debate within our-

selves and reflect on it. This is called manana. The

teaching must become our own. Others teach us

the truth they have reached as well as the method

by which they did so. We have to use our own rea-

son to repeat successfully the process described by

the guru and re-discover the truth for ourselves.

SANKARA’S ADVAITA

119 >

Rational reflection is necessary to get to the depth of

conviction. *We will have to argue out the opposing,

views that assail our conviction. Personal reflection

assists the aspirant in fighting contrary positions and

helps him to realise the great truth of Advaita. It.

overcomes all those tumults and lusts that give fierce

battle to the central truth of Advaita. Manana or re-

flection is the name given to that mental operation by

which reasons are thought out and the discords bet-

ween the Vedanta teaching and other modes of testi-

mony are removed. Reflection bums the truth into

the aspirant’s mind. It makes the external opinion

we get from the guru inwardly clear.

The intellectual conviction is still mediate know-

ledge. It is not the direct experience of ultimate

reality. By constant meditation it has to be trans-

formed into a vision. The theory must become an ex-

perience (anubhava). It must be a saksdtkara, i. e. a

direct realisation. To this experience the process

called nidhidhydsana leads us. It is the meditation of

the truth of Advaita till it is transformed into a direct

experience. The intellectual conviction is likely to

be disturbed by old habits and unconscious urges. Me-

ditation overcomes them.

Nidhidhydsana is the way to realisation. The

author of the Vedanta Paribhdsa describes it. “It is

that operation by which we fix our mind on self, draw-

ing it away from all worldly concerns towards which

it is attached by a beginningless habit. ”

The Vedantin prescribes a number of upasanas

for transforming the mediate knowledge of Advaita

into actual realisation. Sankara defines updsand in his

commentary on the Brhaddranyaka. “It means reach-

ing by the mind the form of a deity or something else

120 INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

as delineated in scriptural passages relating to medi-

tation and concentrating the mind on it — uninterrupt-

ed by secular thoughts — until identity with that deity

or other thing is realised in the same degree in which

identity is now realised with our body. ”

Updsana involves concentration an£ sympathetic

imagination. First of all the mind is abstracted from

everything except the object of meditation. Secondly,

union with the object meditated is established. It

enables us to fix a continuous flow of thought about

a thing without any interruption by other cross-cur-

rents of the mind. It is also described as the constant

memory (dhruva smrti).

The meditation when intensely practised brings

about the realisation. The great sayings of the Upa-

nisads that declare the identity of the individual and

Reality open our eyes and behold the truth. With

the onset of this experience we no longer feel that

we are banished strangers and little men but divinity

itself. We realise the truth of the saying that we are

Brahman. Such an experience makes us Godlike in

our apprehension and ways of life i. e., the mani-

fest destiny of men, the ground and the goal of human

life. The mystics of the world have such an experi-

ence. They have brought the knowledge of their ex-

perience to all of us.

More than any aspect of Advaita Vedanta, the

ethical philosophy of Sankara has been the target of

attack from the moderns. The attack takes on more

than one form. Ethical life has no autonomy of its

own and is made the hand-maid of religion by San-

kara. Further, the spiritually perfected individual is

beyond good and evil. Above all, there is no room for

SAtfKARA’S AD V AIT A

individuality, its growth, development or perfection.

The individual is absorbed in the Absolute.

Dr. Schweitzer holds the view that the ethics of

Vedanta and Buddhism are one of perfection. The

Vedantin regards all activity, in the opinion of the

learned doctor, as the result of ignorance. Non-acti-

vity is the mark of the spiritual man. So, the Vedan-

tin preserves himself from impurity of action. The

desire for perfection and not compassion is at the root

of Vedanta morality. That is the finding of Dr. Sch-

weitzer. Further, he fails to see how the world-negat-

ing philosophy of Sankara can inspire individuals to

be morally active. Morality is possible only if we

have “reverence for life. ” If we look upon the world

in which we live as a huge nightmare and a delusion

we would always dissociate ourselves from everything

including existence upon earth. The doctrine of may a

is interpreted by the great humanist doctor as fur-

thering the denial of life.

The ethical philosophy of Sankara does not re-

sult in indifference. It is not inhuman or selfish as

described by the critics. It is not the cold shunning

of everybody and every human interest for the work-

ing out of one’s own salvation. Sankara makes the

ethical perfect through spiritual experience. Ethical

values need spiritual sanction. Without spiritual ex-

perience ethical virtues remain as mere habits. True

humanism is based on spiritual experience. Secular

morality has no sanctions and does not inspire us to

pursue values in the face of opposition. Sankara does

not belittle ethical virtues. He delves deep into the

nature of human love. Human love is not a mere

transitory fancy. It is there because of the funda-

mental oneness of reality. Our love is exclusive and

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

limited because we have a separatist view of reality.

It is again ignorance of the universal oneness of rea-

lity that makes our love conditional and purposive.

. Spiritual experience makes us realise without a sha-

dow of doubt the brotherhood of man. We know that

we are all one. Such a realisation car) never result

in indifference to others. Morality becomes perfected

and spontaneous through spiritual realisation. Nar-

row selfish love flowers into universal compassion.

Hence, Advaita ethics is to be regarded as not ruling

out the ordinary virtues of human life.

The philosophy of Sankara can best be described

as the best type of spiritual humanism. It is rational-

istic in its approach to the problems of philosophy

and experimental in its confirmation of the truth. It

is the only religion that has the chance of being ac-

cepted by our generation who are children of science

-and reason. As religion it is least dogmatic, most uni-

versal and least sectarian. It is at once a philosophy

of values and a grand metaphysics. Sankara’s im-

posing and inspiring system of metaphysics is the

greatest contribution of India to world’s thought and

Teligion. Through his devotional poems and grand

philosophic prose and supreme organisational powers

he stands as the greatest of India’s philosophers for

all times.

Chapter VI

RAMANUJA’S THEISTIC VEDANTA

The term Vedanta does not merely apply to the

system of Sankara’s advaita. It is the general name

for all those systems that have for their authority the

three texts: — Upanisads, Gita and Vedanta Sutras.

The Gita and the Vedanta sutras express, explain and

systematise the message of the Upanisads.

The very fact that the opposing schools of

Vedanta like those of Sankara and Ramanuja quote

texts from the Upanisads as their authority, discloses

the fact that the Upanisads are all not of one view.

There are two distinct currents of thought in the

Upanisads, one a strong current of Absolute Idealism

that is after the heart of Sankara. The statements

in the Upanisads that describe the concept of Nirguna

Brahman, the cosmic view, the doctrine of maya,

and the identity and merger of the individual soul

with Brahman represent the first view. Sankara re-

gards them as the true view and so he sets aside the

second view.

The theistic schools of Vedanta have for their in-

spiration the second current of thought in the Upani-

shads, which looks upon Reality as a Supreme Person,

an adorable object, as the true and loving God of reli-

gion. “He is absolute in the fullest sense of the term.

He is the denial of all denials, the real of all reals. God

is the Protector of all beings, is the Lord of all, and

dwells in the heart of man; that seeing Him as he is,

and everywhere is eternal bliss and this is to be

attained by contemplation and the purification of the

soul and in that blissful condition the individual soul

attains to a perfect similarity with the supreme

124 - ' INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

-soul. ” (Mun. III. 1. 3). The supreme Reality mani-

fests Himself into various forms as avatars i. e., incar-

nations. The concepts of immanence and the trans-

cendence of God are found in the Upanisads. The

doctrine of updsanas is the source for the Bhakti doc-

trine of the latter-day theistic schools of Vedanta.

Ramanuja was the first to present a systematic

school of theistic Vedanta. His line of interpreta-

tion is opposed to that of Sankara. The system out-

lined by Ramanuja is called Visistddvaita Vedanta.

He derived the doctrines of his system from the triple

texts, Bhagavata, Pdncardtra Agamas, and the mysti-

cal writings of a number of god-intoxicated men call-

ed Alvars. These Alvars lived between the 7th and

9th centuries and wrote about their mystical experi-

ences in their mother-tongue, Tamil. Their songs, are

over four thousand in number. They are commented

on by a number of authors and a huge literature in the

regional language has grown round them. These songs

are recited in all the Vaisnava temples. They are the

foundations of Indian theism in the South. Students

of Tamil literature regard the songs as great literary

productions. Ramanuja records that prior to him

there were ancient teachers like Dramida, Tanka and

Guhadeva. Ramanuja has commented on the Gita

and the Vedanta sutras. As for the Upanisads he

has taken the crucial and disputed passages and com-

mented on them in his book on Vedanta Sangraha.

There have been several able exponents of this

school subsequent to Ramanuja. Among them the

most prominent is Vedanta Desika whose dialectical

skill and logical acumen are directed most forcibly

against the Advaita of Sankara.

Ramanuja’s philosophy has for its source and

RAMANUJA’S THEISTIC VEDANTA 125

authority the triple texts and also the religious experi-

ence of the Alvars. He gives us a conception of the

Absolute united to a type of personal theism. His ex-

position of the relation of the world of matter and the

world of souls to God is influenced by the Bhagavata

religion and the mystical experiences of the Alvars.

The elements that go into the making of Ramanuja’s

system are “the influence of the updsand section of

the Upanisads, the Bhagavata literature reinforced by

Prabhakara epistemology and the jiva doctrine of

the Jaina Psychology. ”

His conception of Reality is that of a complex

whole that is organic. Reality for him is not a homo-

geneous, non-composite consciousness. “Its unity is

like that of a living organism, one element predomi-

nates and controls the rest. ” The predominant and

controlling element is God. The world of souls and

the world of matter are subordinate elements and

stand in the relation of adjectives (Visesanas) to the

Lord. These cannot by hypothesis exist by themselves

separately. The complex whole (visista) in which

they are included is described as a unity. Hence the

name visistddvaita ( visistasya visishta-rupena advai -

tam).

Ramanuja’s conception of the Absolute is best

understood when we compare it with that of Sankara.

Sankara’s Absolute is regarded by Ramanuja as a

metaphysical monster. Such a conception is declar-

ed as no better than void. We can say nothing about

it. It is ever inaccessible to us. It can never be

absolute in the positive sense of the term. It is

neither a demand of the head nor of the heart. The

Absolute is the real of all reals. It is the denial of

. all denials. Ramanuja believes that Reality is a

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

supreme, adorable, personal and loving God. The

Upani^adic statement that “neither the mind nor

speech can describe Brahman” does not mean that

Brahman is unknowable. It means that with our

finite intellect we cannot completely know all about

the Lord. Our knowledge of Him is always bound

to fall short of completeness. The negative descrip-

tions of Brahman declare that the Lord has none of

the imperfect virtues or the characteristics of the

world. There is the complete absence of all undesir-

able gwvas in Him. Ramanuja regards the Supreme

as the home of infinite number of auspicious

qualities ( ananta kalydna guna paripur\tm). God’s

very nature is aprdkrta i. e. not of the prakrti that is

of the world. He is a person not in the finite sense

of the term that we all are. It is only by analogy

we call him a person. The materials that constitute

the abode of the Lord and his personality are not

made of Prakrti. It is made of Suddha Sattva. The

supreme personality of the Lord is the most distin-

guishing feature of Ramanuja’s system. The unique

relation her envisages between the Lord and the world

of matter and the world of souls is the distinctive

mark of his system.

The fundamental authority for Ramanuja’s con-

ception of Ultimate Reality is the Upanisads. The

roots of Ramanuja’s monotheism can be traced back

to the Vedas. In the Upanisads there is a warm cur-

rent of theism and a personalistic conception of

Reality. Supreme Reality is described as Nardyana.

He is referred to as being immanent and also tran-

scendent. He is referred to as the creator, sustained

and destroyer of the world.

The Taittiriya defines Brahman as that verity^

RAMANUJA'S THEISTIC VEDANTA ' 127

from which these beings are born, that by which

when born they live, that into which when depart-

ing they enter. That which we seek to know. That

is Brahman. , M Supreme Reality is not exhausted in

his creation. It is not pantheism. God is not mere-

ly the world. God minus the world is still God. For

the pantheist, God minus the world is zero. Nor is

-Ramanuja’s system a type of deism. God does not

create the world and leave it as a mechanic leaves a

machine. The immanence of God in the external

world and in the heart of man is the essential truth.

-It is perfectly consistent with the belief in God’s

transcendence, His being distinct from the world

and man and being above them, influencing them,

controlling them and listening and responding to

their prayers. The God of Ramanuja does not exist

merely apart from the cosmos but also dwells in it.

He is more than all his manifestations. God is not

exhausted in the world, but he also exists separately.

The pantheism of Ramanuja is not the same as that

of Spinoza.

A particular section of the Brhadaranyaka Upa-

nisad brings out the immanence of God very clearly.

It is called the a ntaraydmi brahmana. “He who is

dwelling in the earth is distinct from it, whom the

earth does not know, whose body the earth is, and

who, being inside, controls the earth, is indestruc-

tible controlling soul ”. 1 2 The same statement is made

about water, fire, sky, wind, the sun, the moon and

the stars, the quarters, the lightning, thunderbolt,

all the worlds, all the Vedas, all sacrifices, all beings,

the vital breath, speech, the eye, the ear, the mind,

1. Taittiriya, III. 1.

2. Br. ra. 7. 3.

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

the skin, light etc. The Lord is distinct from the ob-

jects of the world; still he resides in all objects and

uses them as his body, controls them from inside. ”

The Bhagavad Gita and the Bhdgavata Purdna

bring out the two characteristics of supreme Reality

as being transcendent and immanent. Jt is a persona-

lity without the limitations of the human significance

of the term. From the transcendence and immanence

of the Lord, two other qualities follow, namely, His

nearness and love ( saulabhya and sausilya).

The world of souls, matter and Isvara constitute

a complex. They are distinct but held together. Rama-

nuja is averse to a concept of Reality as the Absolute.

He thinks of it as a conscious mind and supreme

person. He says that it is illogical and difficult to have

concept of God as -substance. In the words of Prof.

Stace: “If you think of God as a supreme person or a

mind — however much you realise the inadequacy of

the words, the difficulties wrapped up in the persona-

listic concept of God, however much you may try to

avoid their ordinary crude meanings as applied to

human beings — you cannot help being anthropomor-

phic. In short, the idea of God is incurably and neces-

sarily anthropomorphic. ” 3

The human mind always thinks and can only

think analogically. . The God of Ramanuja has a

peculiar type of relation with the world of souls and

of matter. It is called aprthak siddhi relation. Souls

are distinct and eternal; so is matter. God does not

create them out of nothing as in Christianity. They

are also regarded as substances but in the complex

unity envisaged by Ramanuja they are treated as the-

3, W. T. Stace, Religion and the Modern Mind, Pp. 9-10.

RAMANUJA’S THEISTIC VEDANTA 12Q

attributes of the Lord. The two categories, souls and

the world, are as real as God but they are dependent

on the Lord and do not exist without Him. All three

exist as a complex wherein souls and matter form the

body of the Lord. The unity is the close fellow-

ship of the three categories. They are not in the rela-

tion of Samavdya i. e., “an external relation between

two inseparables which are distinct reals. ” The con-

cept of samavdya is criticised in Vedanta Sutra and

a logical analysis of it leads to the fallacy of in-

finite regress. So Ramanuja abandons it and gives a

new name to the relation between the three entities.

It is an organic relation which obtains between sub-

stance and attribute, part and whole, body and soul,

between substances. It is a vital relation. It brings

out the intimate relation between God and other cate-

gories. The relation expounded by Ramanuja brings

out the two central doctrines of religion, namely: (1)

that the worlds of matter and souls are sustained and

supported by the Lord (2) that they subserve the

purposes of the Lord. Matter and souls exist for the

Lord. God is the sole cause of all. In the words of

Prof. Hiriyanna, “the world and the individual souls

are real and distinct, the Absolute in which they are

included is one. They are eternal with God but not

external to him. ” The distinction is not discerned but

at the same time organic unity of the whole is affirmed.

We must note the fact that the souls are not modal

transformation of the God as in Advaita. They are

accessories to Him to subserve his purposes. They

are not identical with Him. When Ramanuja refers

to them as his body, “the ‘body 19 is that which is

controlled, supported and utilized for its purposes bv

a soul. ”

180 INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

The intimate relation between the Lord and the

souls is expressed in a number of ways by Ramanuja.

God is regarded as substance (Prakari) and souls are

the outer attributes (Prakara). God is the (niyanta)

i. e., the controller and we are the controlled (niyamya).

He is the supporter and we are the supported i. e.

(adhara and adheya). We are the parts, He is

the whole (amsa and amsi). We are the means

and He is the end (sesa-sesi). Ramanuja has for his

support the Svet& svetara. ' “The eternal which rests

in the Self should be known. Truly there is nothing

beyond this to be known. By knowing the enjoyer,

the object of enjoyment and the mover of all, every-

thing has been said. This is the threefold Brahman. ”

Ramanuja’s conception of God is intimate and it

answers the purposes of religion. God is with us. He

is close to us and works in our lives. He is seated

in the heart of men. The conception of God as an ab-

straction chills us. The God of Ramanuja is neither

an intellectual abstraction that is inoperative in the

behaviour, of men nor is it a conventional and

barren verbal formula that we keep on repeating be-

cause it is our habit. Nor is the God of Ramanuja

the God of the deists, the first cause who created the

world and left it there like Paley’s watch-maker. Nor

is God a hypothesis that explains how the world

originated and has no import in the daily affairs of

our life. The remoteness and the non-concern of God

to the world has destroyed the force of religion. The

God of Ramanuja is the God of the GAtti; “he is the

enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, the great Lord

of all the worlds, the friend of all beings. ” God is

described in the Bhagavata as the beloved, the self,

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