Guest guest Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Dear all, I had a query and I could look no further than asking here the experts on Srivaishnavam. In fact it is a sort of clarifying about our philosophy. Basically I want to know whether our acharyas and/or azhwars and others believed in "nirguna brahmam". Regards, Lakshminarasimhan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 SrI: SrImathE Ramanujaya namah: Dear Sri Lakshmi Narasihman, I am only in kinder garden student in our sampradaya... adiyEn referred to the archives and found this wondreful paragraph [written by our Sri Mani Varadarajan] on the subject based on Sri U VE SMS Chari's clarifcations: 'para vidyAsu sarvAsu saguNa mEva BrahmOpAsyam. phalam caika rUpamEva atO vidyA vikalpaha Sri Ramanuja is saying that by definition the Supreme Being always has qualities (sa-guNa). He is 'saguNa' in that He has all manner of auspicious and edifying attributes, such as infinite consciousness, infinitude, His being eternally true, infinitely blissful, etc. He is also saguNa in that the mass of jIvas and prakRti are in an adjectival relation to Him. He is 'nirguNa' because He is unaffected by and absolutely bereft of the three material guNas in His essence or svarUpa, and in His divine manifestations. A confusion typically arises in the usage of the term 'nirguNa'. We accept that the Supreme Being is nirguNa in the sense as described above. The Advaitins including Sri Sankara define nirguNa as meaning totally devoid of any distinctions or attributes whatsoever. In Advaita, if someone describes the nirguNa brahman as being true, infinite, and blissful, it is only understood as denying falsity or unreality, finitude, and misery to brahman. To Advaitins it does not mean that the nirguNa brahman actually has the qualities of truth, infinitude, and bliss, since by definition It cannot be said to have *any* qualities. To avoid this confusion, Dr. S.M. Srinivasa Chari had mentioned that the great Sribhashya exponent Sri Abhinava Ranganatha Parakala Swami preferred to describe the Advaita doctrine as 'nirvisesha brahman' (brahman without any *attributes* whatsoever) rather than 'nirguNa', since the word 'guNa' has many meanings, many of which we in the Visishtadvaita school accept as well. We then can speak freely of the Visishta Brahman as being truly nirguNa as well ****************** He is anantha kalyANa guNagaNouka mahaarNavan; and akila hEya prathyaneekan [ocean of innumerable auspicious attributes and devoid of any imperfections] Thanks and Regards Namo narayana dAsan , lakshminarasimhan seshadri <lakshminarasimhan_seshadri wrote: > > Dear all, > > I had a query and I could look no further than asking here the experts on Srivaishnavam. In fact it is a sort of clarifying about our philosophy. Basically I want to know whether our acharyas and/or azhwars and others believed in "nirguna brahmam". > > Regards, > Lakshminarasimhan > > > > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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