Philosophy o fRamanuja in easy instalments-section2 continued

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Brahman as Sathyam.

 

Brahman is sathyam or real which does not mean that the other two, namely, chit, the sentient and achit , the insentient denoted by jiva and jagat, are unreal. They are real but they are conditioned.Achit or matter, the effects of prkrthi, the premordial nature consisting of three gunas, cotinues to change and hence it is conditioned by its form and attributes. But it is real only as the state of existence alone changes but not the substance.

 

This can be explained as follows:

The clay is made into a pot and hence it no more exists as clay. But it is real and only the state of existence has changed. When the pot is broken, it becomes potsherds still it is real but the form and attributes has changed. So nothing in this world ceases to exist and hence it is real.The insentient, achit includes everything except the soul.In the final dissolution also the achit and chit do not cease to exist but absorbed in Brahman and exist in unmanifest state..

 

The individual soul, jiva, denoted as chit is also not uneal but conditioned real because its existence is conditioned by the body it acquires due to karma.

Brahman is thus termed as satyasya satyam, real of the reals. It is the inner self of all, changeless and infinite.It is satyasya satyam as everything acquires reality only because of Brahman.

 

Brahman as jnana

 

Brahman is knowledge, not in the sense that it is knowledge itself but in the sense of having knowledge as its svrupa like the heat and the fire. Heat is the svarupa of fire without which it ceases to be fire.Similarly the jnana is the svarupa of Brahman and it is infinite.It differs from that of the jiva in as much as the knowledge of jiva becomes contracted due to karma and attains it infinite state only in mukthi.the knowledge of brahman is infinite and unconditioned and is the source of all knowledge, by knowing which everything else becomes known.. These will be explained later when we deal with the causation of Brahman.

 

Brahman as anantha

 

Brahman is infinite. This is a determining quality which distinguishes Brahman from jiva and jagat. Brahman is not conditioned by time, place or entity. Conditioning by time is when we say that a thing exists now but not later or earlier. A pot does not exist before its creation not after it is destroyed.. Conditioning by place means a thing exists here and not elsewhere. A pot is here but not there. Conditiong by entity is a thing being limited in form, as saying this is a pot ,that is a cloth etc.

 

Brahman on the other hand exists everywhere as there is nothing else other than Brahman. So it is unconditioned by space. Brahman exists always and hence not limited by time. As everything is Brahman it is not limited by entity either.

 

Thus the idea of Brahman as AdhAra affirms the reality of separate entities of chit and achit but denies their separate reality other than Brahman.