Philososphy of Ramanuja in easy instalments-part 1 -section2

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section2

 

The knowledge of reality

 

Brahman or the absolute reality, is Narayana of visishyadvaita. But the world of

sentient and insentient beings is not unreal. In Visishtadvaita there are three

reals, namely ,chit, the sentient, achit, the insentient and Isvara, though the

first two are not distinct reals, unconnected and separate but have an

inseparable realation with Isvara..This is what is known as the sarira-sariri

bhava in visishtadvaita and the vedanta is called sAriraka sasthra.

 

 

 

The first of the three reals, Isvara is the inner Self of all beings both

sentient and insentient, which form His sarira. The term sarira is defined by

Ramanuja as the substance which a sentient soul can support, control for its own

purposes and which stands in a subordinate relation to the sentient soul. All

beings are supported and controlled by Brahman , to whom they are subservient.

As the physical body exists for the purpose of the individual soul and not vice

versa, all beings exist for the sake of Brahman, their inner self of whom they

constitute the body.This relationship is variously described as

AdhAra-AdhEya(supporter and the supported), niyanthA-niyAmya(controller and the

controlled) and Sesha-Seshi( possessor and the possessed).

 

 

Brahman is the adhara

Brahman is the adhara or the support of all in the sense of being a substratum

of everything.The idea of support is not like a basket to the fruit where the

supporter and the supported are distinct and separate, but the two have an

inseparable relationship.The space, akasa , exists everywhere and everyting

exists in it , without which they cannot stand, yet the akasa is not affected by

anything while it pervades everythiing in and out.In describing the srshtikrama,

upanishad says that everything came from akasa and merges back into akasa.This

is the concept of the adhara -adheya bhava between Brahman and the world, though

this is only in form of an illustration since akasa is not Brahman being itself

supported by Brahman.In Bhagavtgita Krishna says.that all beings are supported

by the SupremeSelf like the beads on a string.The same idea is found in the

upanishad where Yajnavalkya explains that the whole universe is supported by

Brahman who is the warp and hoof of everything.So the knowledge of reality can

arise only by knowing the nature of Brahman , by knowing which everything

becomes known. The upanishad define Brahman as 'sathyam, jnanam, anantham

brahma.' That is, Brahman is existence or truth, knowledge and infinity.