29 April 2001 Sankara & Ramanuja Meaning and Being

April 29, 2001

29 April 2001 : Sankara & Ramanuja: Meaning and Being

Maybe of interest to some members?

Geetha

(Apologize for not knowing how to cut and paste only relevant information.

Columnists | On Camera

FEEDBACK

Sunday

29 April 2001

Find in The Times of India India Directory Entire Web

EDITORIAL HEADLINES

Home

Breaking News

India

Cities

World

Sports

Entertainment

India Business

Intl Business

Stocks

Infotech

Health/Science

Editorial

Interview

Letters

Columnists

On Camera NEW

Indiatimes

Top Headlines

Photo Gallery

Weather

Remit2India

TimesofMoney

Astrospeak

Cricket Ratings

Times Cricket

Features

Lost Victory

Indians of the

century

Young Republic

Old Civilization

Interactive

Crossword

Java

Image

Today's Chat

Message Boards

Live Quotes

Type the name of the company to get the latest BSE/NSE stock quote

BSENSE

THE SPEAKING TREE

Sankara & Ramanuja: Meaning and Being

By PRANAV KHULLAR

(Today is Sankara-Ramanuja Jayanti)

THE quest of the Indian mind, as it were, has been a continual

thrust towards meaning and Being, nowhere better embodied than in the tremendous

speculative and spiritual thought of Adi Sankaracharya and Ramanajuacharya, two

great minds whose road maps to the Absolute reflect cardinal positions of Indian

thought and tradition. While Shankara's Advaita is best summed up in a famous

oft-quoted verse, "Brahma Satyam Jagan Mithya Jiva Brahmaivah Naparah" (meaning

Brahman alone is real, the world illusory and the individual and universal soul

are one), Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita treads a middle path by focusing on the

relation between world and God.

The Bhasyas of Sankara and Ramanuja were essentially treatises on

the Brahma-Sutras of Vyasa, five hundred and fifty-five Sutras, aphorisms

containing the quintessence of Upanishadic thought. Their deliberations, as

indeed of most Vedantic philosophy are triggered by the great call of the first

Sutra itself, "Athato Brahma Jignasa" (now therefore the enquiry into Brahman),

a call to free inquiry which sets the tone of all speculation. What is

strikingly ironic is that both based their deliberations on the same text and

started out with similar assumptions but they grew out in different directions,

Sankara upholding an uncomprising monistic view and Ramanuja posing a theistic

view of the Vedas.

Sankara's magnetic appeal lay as much in his erudition and

dialectical skill as in his being a child prodigy. In a short life of thirty he

set ablaze the intellectual world of his times, redefining, revamping and

revitalising old concepts not only with great strength but great humility as

well. From the backwaters of Kaladi in Kerala to the northern Gangetic plains he

took on all, scholars and sages and savants, in challenging debates of the

Yajnavalkya-Maitreyi kind. He was no less a rebel and maverick in respect to

social customs, insisting on performing the last rites of his mother despite

being a sanyasi and that too in the backyard of his ancestral house, a tradition

followed to this day in Kerala. Most of all he was the young sage who reached

out and inspired the masses to renew their faith afresh through some intense

devotional lyrics, marvellous simple hymns like "Bhaja Govindam" and

"Saundaryalahari" which put him within easy reach of the layperson as well. He

was a man possessed, saturated with the idea that he had a cosmic mission to

perform.

Ramanuja, who is supposed to have lived for a hundred-odd years, was

on the contrary more well entrenched in a theological tradition which he carried

forward to its logical conclusion. Inspired by the twelve Alvar poet-saints of

South India and an entire Vaishnavite theology, his intense religious fervour

led him to identify the Absolute with God and differ fundamentally with the

advaitic position of Sankara. Tradition has it that he was inspired to write his

commentary on the Brahma Sutras at the time of the death of his Guru when his

attention was drawn towards the three folded fingers of the right hand of his

Guru which signified his three unfulfilled desires, one of which was to write an

authoritative commentary on the Brahma Sutras. Ramanuja wrote his magnum opus,

the Sribhashya, in response to his Guru's command.

While Sankara had a two-level theory of Brahman, perceiving it as

essentially featureless, nirguna, without attributes, but manifesting itself

with personal attributes, saguna, and nirguna being ultimately true and saguna

false,Ramanuja contended that this saguna and nirguna are one, related to each

other as body and soul. The Brahman-world relation in Sankara is explained in

the well-known snake rope analogy where the illusion is caused by mistaking a

rope for a snake.

Both Sankara and Ramanuja were gigantic intellects, seminal thinkers

but great apostles of Bhakti as well wherein lies their mass appeal and reach to

the common person. Sankara's devotional outpourings were meant to inspire and

arouse people to their innate divine self while Ramanuja was already a

torch-bearer of the Vaishnavaite tradition. Their influence has been far

reaching not only for Indian thought but for every aspect of Indian culture and

tradition. Their lives were exemplary and reflective of the cosmic stature of

their thought. Sankara and Ramanuja were spirits of free enquiry, whose birth

Jayant is today are a befitting occasion to ponder and reflect on their teaching

and rich spiritual legacy.

Previous Article Next Article

The Bandh Wagon

Misarranged marriage

Advantage BCCI

India's Missing Women

Sankara & Ramanuja: Meaning and Being

Harappan Lore

Sri Sankara Jayanti

TOP

Sign In

29 April 2001 Sankara & Ramanuja Meaning and Being

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Support the Ashram

Join Groups

Top Downloads