part VI - Corrections

[Guest guest]

I noticed some errors/omissions in my earlier email which I would like to

correct:

 

1.

" Prakritihi Kartree purushastu pushakarapalaashavat nirliptaha " should read as

" Prakritihi Kartree purushastu pushkarapalaashavat nirliptaha " in the Samkhya

school.

 

2.

then Purusha who is Jnaatr ( Jnana-vishaya or to be known) should read as

then Purusha who is Jnaatr ( the knower )

 

Note that the intention of these emails is to show how the different schools

of thought start out with conclusions / upadeshas

and not from Vichaara or Enquiry. In order to illustrate this point, only

those concepts that are absolutely necessary have

been introduced. For example, in the Samkhya school itself, there are two

schools:

 

Nireeshwara Samkhya and Seshwara Samkhya. In the Nireeshwara Samkhya as the

name suggests, there is no Iswara.

In Seshwara Samkhya, Iswara is one among the many causes for this world.

The Purusha they talk about stands for Chetana, consciousness and intelligence

while Prakriti is dynamic energy

and action. Prakriti is one and purusha (jivas) are many. The jiva continues

to be in samsaara as long as he does not

have the discriminative knowledge of Purusha and Prakriti.

 

The proper way to do this is to start with the Samkhya epiestomology , Samkhya

Ontology, etc and for this purpose

one should read Iswara Krishna's Samkhya Kaarika.

 

As you can see from these emails, the intention is to see what would have

happened to those schools if they had started with proper Pramaana Parikshaa

and not with Prameyas. That is why, Srimad Ananda Thiirtha and following him

Jayatheertha, Vyaasatheertha, Raghavendra Thirrtha and others insist in all

their works, that it is Vichaara or Jigyaasaa that should lead us and not

conclusions. Sri Raghavendra Thiirtha takes it further, in Mantrartha

Manjari in the beginning of that work when he says

 

" Soothraartham Hridi Krittyaiva Bhashyaartham Samprakaashaye "

(The meaning of Bhashya is being brought out only after keeping in mind the

meaning of Sutra)

Note that Sri Raghavendra thiirtha's Mantrartha Manjari is a work on aNu

Bhashya of Srimad Ananda Thiirtha !!

 

You can see how different the actual position of Shaastra is when compared to

our ordinary understanding that

it is Bhashya that decides the meaning of Sutra is. In Yukti Mallika

Vaadiraja Thiirtha says,

" Sutraanusaaree cha yat sarvam shaastramiti ati mangalam " . So what is

auspicious for us? that which follows sutra-nyaya.

Sutra is Vichaara-roopa and that is why it is Vichaara, Jigyaasaa, Mimaamsaa,

Enquiry or Shastra that should lead us and not conclusions.

 

Similar to these, we can look at all the different schools from the point of

view of Jnana-Tattva in a different series of emails,

may be sometime in future.

 

Jayakrishna Nelamangala

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RJAY Consultants Inc.,

Tel: (703)430-8090 Fax: (703)904-8496

Email: jay

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Jay Nelamangala <jay

VMS < >

Wednesday, January 26, 2000 2:10 PM

part VI - Astika Systems and Brahma Vaada

 

 

" Jay Nelamangala " <jay

 

 

To recollect what has been said so far,

 

Srimad Acharya does not give importance to the Nastika and Astika

classification that we are familiar with.

In his view, whichever is opposed to Brahma-Vaada is Naastika.

The schools of thought which have been refuted by Baadaraayana in

SamayaPaada, under the name

of " Samayas " those are the ones which oppose Brahma-Vaada. He showed

that in this world, any school of thought that is not Brahma-Vaada that

was there in the past,

that is there at present and that might be there in future, will all come

under one of these Samayas. These

Samayas will always be there, and will be brought to prominence

by those who do not follow BaadaraayaNa completely, and thus negating Veda

itself,

and that is why he considers all of them as Naastika.

 

The Charuvaka, Bouddha and Jaina systems started

off with the Upadesha of their respective thinkers, and not with

Pramaana-Parikshaa, and if they had started with proper Pramaana-Parikshaa

their schools of thought would not be born.

 

With this background in mind, let us examine the Astika Schools.

 

Astika systems are also known as " Shad-Darshana " under the name of Nyaya,

Vaisheshika, Samkhya,

Yoga, Poorva-Mimamsaa, and Uttara Mimamsaa - these six systems are the

Astika Schools of thought.

Among these Uttara Mimamsaa is also known as Vedanta.

 

 

Nyaya-Vaisheshika : There were Nyaya and Vaisheshika - two independent

schools of thought in the beginning.

There was Nyaya which dealt with mainly " Pramaana vichaara " and

Vaisheshika which dealt with " Prameya vichaara "

mainly and in the course of time, because of their similarities the two

became one school of thought ,

under the name Nyaya-Vaisheshika. In what took shape in these three forms,

" Pramaana " was established in the light of empirical experience and

in accordance with that Veda was accepted as Pramaana. Attempt was made to

understand the

" para-tatva " with the help of such a Pramaana,

and what came out as Siddhantha thus turned out to be Empirical i.e.,

Loukika as well.

 

Like the experience that Potter is the cause for the making of the Pot, so

also Iswara is the

cause for portion of this world that is " made " .

Iswara is one of the many among the portion that is not " made " like time,

space etc.

But still as maker of this world, Ishwara is Sarvajna.

They imagined that Veda was made by the Ishwara thus conceived. This

imagination ruled their " Pramaana-Pariikshaa " and though their reasoning

appears to be quite terse,

it turns out to be a

mere imagination.

The main reason for this imagination is their

conclusion without Vichaara or enquiry that " Ishwara is the lord of this

world and veda is pramaana " .

The proof for this is in the fact

that this school of thought goes all out in establishing " what is believed

to be Ishwara " and " what is believed to be Veda " .

 

Sammkhya:

The Samkhya school agrees with the fact that this world comprises of

Chetana and Achetana,

they call the Achetana as Prakriti and Chetana as Purusha and start out

with the belief that,

 

" Prakritihi Kartree purushastu pushakarapalaashavat nirliptaha "

 

(Prakriti is the doer and Purusha is unattached, aloof like the lotus leaf)

 

 

To establish this position which it believed in, it starts out with

pramaanas. In doing so, although there is a place for Veda and

although Veda is described to be Apourusheya, the defect in this

school of thought is that Veda is used to as supportive to establish the

above said imagination.

If this school had not started out with

the above conclusion, and instead had started out with pure Pramaana-

pariikshaa, then Purusha who is Jnaatr ( Jnana-vishaya or to be known)

would not be known as Nirlipta and this school would not have a chance to

start with the

conclusion that Prakriti has kartrtva. THis whole school of thought would

not be born,

if the knowledge had set in thro Pramaana-Parikshaa that Purusha who is

Jnaatr, alone is the Kartr also.

The " aloofness " as defined by Samkhya as the state of Purusha

being left to itself is inconceivable.

 

So, having started with an imagination, the whole Samkhya school

turns out to be a mere imagination.

 

In the next email, we will examine the Yoga and PoorvaMimaamsaa schools.

 

Harihi Om Tatsat,

 

Jayakrisha Nelamangala

 

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RJAY Consultants Inc.,

Tel: (703)430-8090 Fax: (703)904-8496

Email: jay

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nAham kartA hariH kartA tatpUjA karmachaakhilam.h|

taThaapi matkR^itaa pUja tatprasaadhEna naanyaThaa|

tadbhakti tadphalam.h mahyam.h tatprasaadaat.h punaH punaH |

karmanyaasO harAvevam.h vishNOsthR^iptikaraH sadhA ||

 

" I am not the doer, shri Hari is the doer, all the actions that I do are

His worship. Even then, the worship I do is through His grace and not

otherwise. That devotion and the fruits of the actions that come to me are due

to His recurring grace "

If one always practices to do actions with a dedicated spirit to Hari, in

this way, it pleases Vishnu.

--- Quoted by Sri madhvAchArya in GitA tAtparya

 

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