Introduction To Vedanta - P. Nagaraja Rao 11 страница

⇐ ПредыдущаяСтр 15 из 20Следующая ⇒

reads an entirely different meaning diametrically

opposed to the system ©f Sankara’s Advaita in the

texts. Dvaita Vedanta is a realistic, theistic and

pluralistic system. It is the most powerful attack

on the monism of Sankara. Its realism, in its logic

and metaphysics, is more radical than that of the Nyaya

and Vaiseshika systems.

The philosophy of Madhva is the religion of a

prophet who interprets the mind of the Lord to his

followers. A threefold faith is insisted on by Madhva,

as the pre-requisite for attaining salvation. First,

faith in the triple texts: The Upanisads, Bhagavad

Gita and the Vedanta sutras. Secondly, the faith

that Madhva’s interpretation of the texts is not only

the correct interpretation but also that all other inter-

pretations like those of Sankara, Ramanuja, Nirh-

barka are all wrong and against the spirit of the

texts. Thirdly, the faith that Madhva’s interpretation

arises from his mission entrusted by God.

With the strength of a burning conviction,

born of authentic religious experience, Madhva

writes often in his commentaries that he has been

divinely commissioned by Lord Visnu to correctly

interpret the triple texts and lay the pathway to

God for men to tread.

Tradition holds the view that Madhva is the

148 ' INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

third incarnation of Vayu, the first two being that of

Hanuman and Bhima. In all, Madhva has written some

37 works. He wrote commentaries on the Vedanta

Sutras; one in the form of verses called Anu-

vydkhydna, and the other is the Sutra-bhasya. He has

two commentaries on the Gita too and h^s commented

on all the ten Upanisads. Further, he has given ten

independent philosophical tracts called Prakaranas

each dealing with a particular doctrine and topic of

his system. (A very profound exposition in English

of these ten works is made by Dr. R. Nagaraja Sarnia

of Madras. The work is his doctoral thesis, a labour

of love and great scholarship. It is a fighting exposi-

tion of the philosophy of Sri Madhva by one of his

fervent advocates. ) Besides the commentaries, Madh-

va has several devotional hymns to his credit. The

best of them is the Dvddasastotra.

The philosophical works of Madhva are very

terse and they do not yield any meaning without the

commentary of the greatest post-Madhva thinker,

Jayatirtha. He has commented on almost all the

works of Madhva. It was his mission in life to reveal

the thoughts of the master. His commentary on

Anuvydkhydna is considered as the great book of

Madhva’s system. It is the famous Nydya Sudha.

Though the work is designated by the unassuming

name of a tikd or commentary, in reality it is a first-

rate philosophical classic. Judged by the brilliance

of his style and logical acumen, the work ranks with

the great makers of philosophical classics and the

writer belongs to the ranks of great philosophical

stylists like Sahara, Sankara and Vacaspati.

Two other names stand out as the great

exponents of Madhva’s thought, Vyasaraya and

THE PHILOSOPHY OF 6RI MADHVA 149

Raghavendra. Vyasaraja was a great logician and he

has attempted with great force to refute logically the

Advaita doctrines in his Nyaydmrta and the Nyaya

doctrines in his Tarkatdn^tava. They are the best

specimens of polemical philosophical writing. He

defended the category of difference against its assai-

lants in his Bhedojjivana. Raghavendra has comment-

ed on all the works of Jayatirtha. A great poetic

writer of the school is Vadiraja. His works are high-

ly persuasive, particularly his Yuktimallikd, a col-

lection of logical arguments in favour of the Dvaita

system and against other systems.

The philosophy of Madhva is theistic to its core.

It in no way compromises the glory of the supra-

personal God. He conceives the greatest philoso-

phical Reality after the manner of a supreme

person. He calls him Narayana. The Lord is not an

abstract Absolute like the Brahman of Sankara. He

is the home of all auspicious, infinite attributes. He

is described as the Independent One. All the other

categories, souls and matter, are dependent on Him.

Independence in the philosophical language of Madh-

va means ‘one who dees not derive his existence

(satta), his knowledge (pramlti) and activity

(pravrtti) from others. The Lord is self-contained and

perfect in Himself every way. The existence of the

Lord and his nature is established on the authority

of the. scriptures. Madhva takes the Puranas, Maha-

bharata, the Pancharatra Agamas and the triple texts

as authorities. He reconciles all the terms as denoting

Lord Visnu as the greatest truth. He is the creator,

sustainer and destroyer of the world.

The independence of the Lord is in no measure

mitigated by the existence of the world of souls or

150 INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

matter i. e. Prakjrti. Matter and souls are not in-

dependent philosophical substances as the Lord is.

They are dependent on Him for their satta (exist-

ence), knowledge (pramiti) and action (pravrtti).

There is nothing impossible for the Lord. If He

chooses to destroy the existence of substance, souls,

time, space etc., he can do so. He has the power neces-

sary for it. If He does not do so, the cause for it is

His nature.

The glory of the Lord is established un-

conditionally. Omnipotence is not interpreted here as

in Leibnitz. It is a capacity to do anything he likes.

That He does not do it is his choice.

Madhva’s God is not the Brahman of Sankara.

Madhva believes that Sankara’s Brahman is non-

different from the Sunya of the Buddhist. He calls

him an atheist and Buddhist in disguise. However,

advanced students of Buddhism maintain that the

Sunya of the Buddhist is not an absolute non-existence

and that it is positive. Madhva regards Advaita as

a non-desirable religion (heya mata). He is always

polemical in his writings and states clearly and in an

uncompromising manner his position. Madhva’s

God is not bound up with other entities. All others

depend on him, he on none. Madhva’s admission

that there are other categories like souls and

matter does not make his system dualistic like the

Sankhya. For, in Sankhya neither the purusas nor

prakfti can be derived from either. Each is ultimate

in itself. In his system all are dependent and

the Lord alone is independent. Nor is Madhva’s

God like the God of the Nyaya system who is

dependent on atoms for creation. Madhva’s Nara-

yanja is not a deistic God who creates the world

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SR! MADHVA 151

and leaves it, but he sustains it. He is immanent

and also transcendent. He is the only free agent.

Our freedoms are what he accords to us. The terms

freedom, independence, have a plenary significance

only in respect of Him. They are applied to others

in a restrictive sense. The dependence on the Lord

is the common characteristic of all the categories.

Madhva does not envisage the relation between

the Lord, and souls and. matter as Ramanuja does.

The relation between the body and the soul is not

admitted by Madhva. It cuts both ways. The

soul too is dependent on body for manifestation as

body is for its sustenance. The Lord according to

Madhva is non-dependent. The dependence is uni-

lateral and not reciprocal. Madhva does not brook

any limitation to the power of the Lord. The Lord

is the bestower of moksa to the soul through his grace.

The Lord is not to be approached directly, but only

through the prophet Madhva. His intercession is

absolutely necessary.

The soul according to Madhva is different from

the body. They are infinite in number, uncreated

but they are all dependent on the Lord. They are

eternal, imperishable and cannot be destroyed. They

are atomic, not in the material sense of the term.

They are like the monads in the philosophy of Leib-

nitz. They are energy centres. Their association

with appropriate bodies is called birth and their

separation is called death. The souls transmigrate

according to the Law of Karma. Each reaps what

he sows. The Lord puts the Law of Karma into

action. It does not work by itself. The purpose of

the soul’s series of rebirth is to perfect itself and

achieve moksa. It is not possible in a single life.

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

Moksa is a state of bliss and spiritual experience

where the individual soul sees its true nature and

the vision of the Lord. The experience puts an end

to all human sorrows, overcomes all strife and ten-

sion and dispels all doubts and disbeliefs. After

the experience, which is secured by the grace of the

Lord through the instrumentality of Madhva, there

is no return to samsara.

In the ordinary state the individual soul is held

in bondage. This bondage is the result of two fac-

tors. The soul’s real nature is hidden from itself

and also the nature and the form of God. God alone

knows the true nature of the self. He is in possession

of the Truth. He alone can reveal the true nature

of soul to the soul. The immediate realisation and

perception of the nature of one’s own soul is called

moksa. This can be secured only by the grace of

the Lord. On the part of the individual soul, he can

only do all that the Lord requires of him and be

ready to receive the grace.

The soul has none of the impurities intrinsically;

they are all the results of his Karma. They are like

the rust of the copper which has come in due to Kar-

mic associations. There wa£ no time when the soul

was without any Karmic association. It is anadi,

beginningless, though it can be removed. To the ques-

tion as to when the soul began its first life or why

it did so, to the objection that there should have been

no Karma prior to the first life — for Karma accrues

only as a result of life — there is no rational answer.

The event of the associations of soul with Karma is

without a beginning in time.

Madhva admits that the Lord is responsible for

the bondage of the soul and the removal of it also

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SRI MADHVA 158

depends on his grace. He conceals the true nature

of the soul by His tirodhdna power. Thus we find

the problem of evil makes its appearance. That God

permits its existence and has the power to destroy it

raises many questions. It is a great philosophical

truth that theism has its thorns in the problem of

evil. No theism has been able to explain to the

children of science and reason the rationale of the

problem of evil. There is no theism without the pro-

blem of evil. Roses have thorns.

Madhva explains that evil has a positive role. It

is necessary for the moral perfection of the soul. The

Lord has chosen to fulfil Himself only this way,

that is by permitting evil and enabling us to over-

come it. The Law of Karma explains all evil — except

the original evil. Such inexplicable points are

found in each system to which we have no answer.

The Karmic bondage of the soul is real. It is natural

to finite souls. It is not an illusion. The bondage

of the soul is real and not a super-imposition as in

Advaita. The real need not be indestructible. The

bondage though real is not permanent. Its destruc-

tion by the grace of the Lord does not militate

against its reality. The Lord is the bandhaka and

Ihe mdcaka. Madhva too admits like Sankara that

there is an original ajndna which is responsible for

the bondage of the soul. He also admits that it is

positive. But he holds that it is real. It is salyartipa

bandha and not an illusory one.

Madhva does not believe that man can be saved

by his own efforts. Only the grace of the Lord can lift

him out of the bondage. In a famous verse Madhva

puts forth his arguments for the existence of God. * If

there was no God (Hari), how could we explain the

154 INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

-existence of the world? If it be contended that we

created the world, then how is it that we are not

making ourselves eternally happy? ” The limitations

and ills to which human life is open argues to

the fact that we are not the creators of the world.

Like Pascal of France, Madhva again and again points

out the misery of man without God and the necessity

for the faith in the Lord, prophet and the scripture.

Faith enables us to step out and break from what is

empirical. Faith gives us the necessary humility

which becomes the solid foundation of our life.

“Faith” in the words of Aldous Huxley “is the pre-

condition of all systematic knowing, all purposive

doing and all decent living. ” Madhva declares that

there is no use trying to do good; by ourselves we are

too sinful, and we always need God.

Madhva believes that the grace of the Lord can

be secured by devotion to him and by the performance

of scripture-ordained duties. Karma purifies the

mind of man. Bhakti can result only from the

knowledge of the glory of the Lord and his infini-

tude. Bhakti is defined by Jayatirtha as “that kind

of attachment to the Lord, based on a complete under-

standing of the supremacy of the Lord, which tran-

scends the love of one’s own self and possessions,

which remains unshaken in death and in difficulty. ”

In the state of moksa the individual souls realise

their nature that was hidden from them in saihsura.

The enjoyment of bliss in Heaven is not the same

for all. There is difference, distinction and grada-

tion (ananda-taratamya ) in bliss enjoyed by the

liberated souls. This difference in grades of bliss is

a deduction from the difference in the nature of

“the souls. Mok$a is the revelation of the svarupa of

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SR! MADHVA 155

the soul. Ananda-taratamya is the corollary of

svarupa-vaicitrya. The individual souls differ in

their intrinsic nature. This inequality does not mili-

tate against the joy in Moksa. Dr. Krishnamurti

Sarma argues that “inequality by itself cannot re-

duce the state of moksa to the level of our own world.

It is jealousy and other bad passions that lead to

strife. Inequality by itself cannot lead to strife.

We have instances where men are heartily jealous

of their equals, and cannot tolerate the idea of an-

other man being their equal in wealth or fame. ”

Ramanuja admits equality of the bliss-experience

among the released souls. But they do not enjoy

the function of cosmic creation. Madhva affirms the

difference in the enjoyment among the released souls.

Madhva relies on scripture and gives us a grad-

ed hierarchy of deities. Lord Visnu is the first of

them, Laksmi, his consort, the second, and the third

is Prophet Vayu. The Lord is to be approached only

through Vayu and not directly. The Lord refuses to

take anything that does not come through Vayu. The

place of Vayu is similar to thpt of Jesus in Christia-

nity. This hierarchy is called the tdratamya. It

is insisted on by Madhva that worships must be con-

ducted with regard to the place of the deities in

the order. If the deities are worshipped in a con-

fused manner, violating the order, it leads the devotee

to hell. Updsana must be according to tdratamya.

Lord Visnu, though represented as the highest

perfection of personality, is still looked upon as a

homogeneous substance. Madhva does not admit any

difference between the Lord and his limbs or attri-

butes or different incarnations. He is svagata bheda

vivarjita. He is the efficient cause, and prakrti is the

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

material cause for the creation of the world. He does

not agree to the atomic theory of matter or the evolu-

tionary theory of prakrti put forth by the Nyaya and

the Sankhya schools respectively. He is also opposed

to the theory of God transforming Himself into his

creation. He is opposed to the Brahma-pariniavia-vada

and it is needless to say that he is opposed to the

may a vada of Sankara.

The world according to Madhva is real and not

illusory. The real is not the permanent. All that

exists is, for Madhva, real. That which is in contact

with space and time is real. God has created the

world. It is the theatre for the soul to evolve and

work for its moksa. Nature obeys the laws of the

Lord. The world is an objective fact and datum.

Madhva argues that if the world were unreal, its

creator, God, must be no better than a juggler. The

glory and greatness of Lord is affected if we take the

w r orld to be unreal. Madhva and many of his

followers have used a good deal of their logical skill

and dialectics to refute the Advaitin’s conception of

the world as Maya. The Advaitin’s characterisation of

the world as “neither real nor unreal, nor real and

unreal, nor non-real and non-unreal” is subjected to

the most severe criticism by most of the post-Madhva

thinkers. The Lord of the universe is identified with

Visnu and Narayana. He is declared to be the home of

all auspicious attributes, the ground and the goal of

human existence.

Further, the philosophy of Madhva puts forth a

scheme of five-fold differences. Being a realistic

school, it regards object as existing independent of

the human mind. Objects are not mind-dependent.

Madhva posits an infinite number of eternal things.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SR! MADHVA ' ^. 157

No two things are alike. Everything is different from

every other thing. Difference is not only a fundamental

category in the philosophy of Madhva but is founda-

tional to his thought. The five-fold differences are (1)

the difference between Jiva and isvara, (2) the differ-

ence between Jiva and Jiva (3) the difference between

jada (matter) and jada (4) the difference between

jada and jiva (5) the difference between jada and

Isvara.

The fivefold difference is one of the important

tenets of Madhva’s philosophy. Madhva invokes

the authority of scripture for his classification of souls

into three divisions called (1) mukti yogyas (2) Nitya-

samsdrins (3) Tamo yogyas. He is of opinion that

the intrinsic nature of the soul is unalterable and

settled once for all. The first class of souls are

destined to get moksa. They are eligible for it. It

is a question of time and they are bound to reach

heaven. The second type of souls are tied down to

sarhsdra. They have to oscillate between birth and

samsdra. They have to oscillate between truth and

death perpetually. The third class are doomed to

eternal damnation.

Moksa in Madhva’s philosophy is not open to all.

There is no sarva mukti here as in Sankara. It is

derivative and not native to the soul of man. A crowd

never gathers at the gate. Many are called but only

a few are chosen. It is the gift of the Lord. Those

whom it pleases the Lord to save are saved. The de-

pressing note here is that a few souls are eternally

damned. They have no hope of moral improvement

or spiritual regeneration.

- Madhva quotes the Gita XVI — 19. 20 and says

that the children of darkness (asuras) are hunted

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

into the wombs of demons by Lord Kr$na who

assuredly says they never and do not attain him at all.

It is difficult to reconcile here as in Christianity

as to how God can be represented as Love and still

find it possible to condemn some souls to eternal

damnation. Madhva unlike Sankara regards all the

parts of the Vedas as equally important. Karma

is necessary for all to secure purification. Bhakti

results from jnana of the Lord. It is the way or the

preparation for salvation and with the onset of grace

man attains salvation. The picture of heaven and the

pleasures indulged in by the released souls are de-

scribed vividly as in Ramanuja’s philosophy.

The philosophy of Madhva is bitterly opposed to

that of Sankara. It makes out a charge-sheet against

Advaita. Its contention against advaita is that (1) the

advaitin’s Brahman is non-different from the Sunya

of the Buddhist (2) the world of souls and matter

are real (3) the individual soul is not identical with

Brahman. It is a creature and the Lord is a creator.

The creature can never become the creator. (4) The

soul is for ever dependent on and different from the

Lord (5) Brahman is not an attributeless (nirguna) but

is the abode of infinite auspicious attributes. Lastly,

Madhva affirms that Advaita is not the true import

of the scripture.

The Vedanta philosophy of Madhva is more of

the nature of a theology. Its reliance on scripture is

cent per cent. It is also a prophet’s religion. The indi-

vidual soul has to grow in a set atmosphere, with-

in a church. It does not brook any liberal interpre-

tation. It is an uncompromising sectarian theology,

influenced by the Love of God and built on the founda-

tions of the Upani$ads and the Gita.

Chapter VIII

VALLABHA’S PHILOSOPHY

The philosophy associated with the name of

Sri Vallabha is called Suddhadvaita. It is a variety

of Advaita, but not that type which Sri Sankara set

forth. The adjective suddha i. e. pure, is intended to

mark off Vallabha’s monism from that of Sankara.

Sankara explains the. world of apparent plurality

by invoking the principle of maya. Maya suppresses

the real nature of Brahman and shows off in its place

the world of souls and things. The identity i. e.

advaya bhdva asserted by Sankara is not between

the world of plurality as it is and Brahman. It is the

unconditioned and non-delimited consciousness in

objects and souls that is identical with Brahman.

Atman in the plural is not real whereas Vallabha

asserts identity between souls and Brahman without

employing the principle of maya. In his view the

doctrine of maya makes Advaita impure.

Like all great acharyas, Vallabha too has a com-

mentary on the Brahma sutras called Anubhasya. He

has an important commentary on the Bh& gavata-

purana called Subodhinl. His commentary on the

Brahmasutras is not complete. It covers only the

first three chapters, two padas and 33 sutras and his

second son Vithalanatha completed it. His great

commentary on the Bhdgavata too is not complete.

It covers the first three skandas, a part of the fourth,

the tenth and a part of the eleventh. He has not

given us independent commentaries on the Gita and

the Upanisads. He has some treatises dealing with

various topics. A special manual of the system is

< 3iridhara’s Suddhadvaita mdrtan^La.

INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

The system is based like all the schools of

Vedanta on the authority of the sruti i. e. revelation.

The four basic authorities for the system are (1)

The Upanisads (2) The Gita (3) Brahma sutra (4) The

Bhagavata. In the words of Prof. G. H. Bhatt of

Baroda, a great scholar and a lucid exponent of the

system, the Bhagavata occupies a very important place

in Vallabha’s Philosophy. It is considered to be the

treasure house of devotion, the fruit of the Vedas,

and its language is the language of meditation.

The system of Vallabha is popularly called the

pusti marga. It emphasizes the importance of divine

grace as the most powerful and unfailing means for

the attainment of salvation. Salvation is possible

only through grace and not through self-effort. The

word pusti means His grace ( posanam tadanugrahah ).

The system is an attempt to give a prominent place

to devotion and still stick to a system of monistic

metaphysics.

Like all great prophets Vallabha too has god-

vision. He lived for some time in Vrndavan and

Mathura. Prof. R. G. Bhandarkar writes that “about

the same time it is alleged that Gopala Krsna

manifested himself on the Govardhana hill by the

name of Devadamana, also* called Sri-Nathaji. God

asked Vallabha in a dream to come and see him.

Vallabha went and saw Devadamana or Sri Nathaji.

Sri Nathaji commanded him to erect a shrine for

himself and to promulgate the method of worship-

ping him, without which a man would not be admis-

sible to the pusti marga, or the path of divine grace,

which Vallabha had founded. ”

Vallabha connected his system into a particular

manifestation of Krsna called Snnathaji. Some *

VALLABHA’S PHILOSOPHY

hold the opinion that Vallabha’s system is influenced

by the theory of one Vi$nuswami. But there is no

conclusive evidence for it.

The central category in the philosophy of Valla-

bha is Brahman. He is an independent reality. His

nature is sat, cit and ananda. He is himself perfec-

tion and there is nothing besides Him independent.

All the things in the world are his real manifesta-

tions. Brahman is viewed under different aspects

by Vallabha. The most perfect aspect is that of a

Supreme Personality. The concept of purusottama is

the highest one. Here we do not have the nlrguna

Brahman of Sankara. The supreme reality is

described as the most perfect person. He is exist-

ence, knowledge and bliss. He is the best of beings.

He is the very image of rasa sweetness. That is His

form. He is no other than Lord Krsna. It is the

divine form of Brahman. He is omnipresent, omni-

scient and omnipotent. Through His power which

is called mayd he can become anything he likes. He

has many powers e. g., knowledge, action, evolution

and involution. He sometimes combines contradic-

tory qualities. There is nothing impossible for Him.

The entire creation of the world is His real mani-

festation.

Vallabha believes in parinama vada i. e., the doc-

trine of transformation. The cause and the effect

both are real for Vallabha. The transformation here

is not of the prakrti which is insentient. Nor is the

transformation illusory (vivarta) as in Sankara.

According to Sankara the cause and the effect do not

belong to the same order of reality (samanasatta).

The effect is an illusory manifestation of the cause.

Nothing that happens to the effects affects the cause.

162 INTRODUCTION TO VEDANTA

The cause and the effect are non-distinct but not

identical for Vallabha. God is the material and the

efficient cause. The effect is dependent on the cause.

It is real. Speaking about His nature Lord Kpgpa

says, “this maya of mine is divine, it is impossible

for one to extricate oneself from it, but the man

who reaches me will get over if. ” The Upanis; ad

refers to the Lord as the great mayin.

While the Lord undergoes all the transforma-

tions he is not affected. Vallabha’s doctrine is call-

ed “avikrta parintimavada. ” Vallabha’s concept is

based on the Mundaka analogy of the spider and its

self-drawing web and the blazing fire and the multi-

⇐ Предыдущая 10 11 12 13 141516 17 18 19 Следующая ⇒