Philosophy of Ramanuja in easy instalments-section2 continued

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Thank you Sarojaji for the enlightening Ramanuja philosophy.

 

Looking for more.

 

Om Namo Narayanaya:

 

Sunil.

 

 

guruvayur , " sarojram18 " <sarojram18 wrote:

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> Brahman as Sathyam.

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> 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.

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> This can be explained as follows:

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> 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..

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> Brahman as jnana

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> 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.

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> Brahman as anantha

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> 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.

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> 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.

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> 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.

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