SrI UpakAra Sangraham Part - 53

[Guest guest]

NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text

may need to change their encoding to UTF-8.

---------

srI:

SrI upakAra sangraham – 53

---

adikAram – 1

poorva upakAra paramparai

(The Foremost Series of Favours)

---

SECTION – 5 (11) [continued]

(27 Favours of the Lord leading to the means for

MOKSHAM)

-----

The yOga system, though believed in the existence

Ishvara, it did not help the jIvas to attain Him but

promoted the concept of Kaivalya – enjoying one’s own

Atma and asserted that that is the ultimate for a

living being to attain. Towards that goal, it laid

down the steps to be followed by an aspirant.

 

In the yOgadarShana, the yOgasootras of sage

Patanjali, the second chapter begins with the advice

to the aspirant that he must surrender to God for

further spiritual progress towards Kaivlaya. The

aspirant should cultivate the virtues, attend to

duties essential to his well-being and personal

security and always keep God-realization as the

primary goal. Once he comes to the enlightenment path

with a firm resolve and proceeds in the right way

after surrendering to God, progressive spiritual

growth is assured. Further progress to attain Kaivalya

is assured once we get the help of God. Here we see

God is being used as a step towards the AtmAnubhava,

enjoyment of one’s own Atma.

 

SwAmi Desikan points out that the Lord does a favour

to the sAttvik persons from being carried away by the

advocacy of self-enjoyment which is not the ultimate

goal for such persons to attain.

 

Next, the Lord attends to those sAttvik persons who

have a firm faith in the Vedic concepts and

instructions. These people were advised by a set of

Vedic scholars to perform sacrificial rites for

getting mundane benefits like wealth or progeny, in

particular, a son or a heavenly life. These scholars

are known as poorva-meemAmsakas. They are concerned

with Samhita and the BrahmaNa part of the Vedas,

excluding the AraNyaka portions which include

Upanishads and deal with knowledge of the Ultimate

reality, Brahman.

 

The poorava-meemAnsakas gave the highest importance to

the Vedic injunctions regarding various rituals and to

the practicing them strictly according to the rules

for mundane and heavenly benefits. But the results

achieved by these rituals are not lasting and do not

help in attaining salvation from the cycle of

rebirths.

 

However, they provided useful information on the

proper study of the Vedas.

 

Their system admits two kinds of knowledge: pratyakSha

(direct perception) and parOkSha (mediate knowledge).

The latter is of five kinds: anumAna (inference),

upamAna (comparison), shabda (verbal testimony)

arthApatti (postulation) and anupalabdhi

(non-perception).

 

Of these, pratyakShan anumAna and shabda are well

known. The others are:

 

upamAna: This is another source of knowledge, by which

a unknown object can be learnt by recollecting a

similarly looking object seen before.

arthApatti: It is the necessary supposition of an

unperceived fact which alone can explain an anomaly

satisfactorily. For example, if a person is noticed

becoming fatter even though he does not eat during the

day, it can be safely presumed that he is secretly

eating at night. This is special source of knowledge

as it cannot be obtained by any other means.

anupalabdhi: This is another source of knowledge since

it gives the immediate cognition of the non-existence

of an object. For example, if a jar which had been

kept at a particular spot, is not perceived now, its

non-existence is cognized.

 

The poorva-meemAmsa sootras contained numerous

theories of reason by which one is helped to take

quick decision when placed in peculiar situation. They

are called nyAyas, like apachEta nyAya,

sAmANya-vishESha nyAya, etc. These are useful to

interpret certain Vedic statements in a proper manner.

This is essential due to the fact that Vedic

statements are all correct, but, when some of them

appear to be against the perceptive fact (pratyakSha)

(not convincing), these should be understood using

these nyAyas. The basic assumption is that any Vedic

statement will not go wrong. In case, such a situation

arises as it is not at all possible to match a Vedic

statement with the pratyakSha, it should be ignored.

The pratyakSha source of knowledge is the most

important and valid source of knowledge, provided it

is bereft of any error.

 

The poorva-meemAmsa Sootras were compiled by Jaimini,

a disciple of Veda VyAsa who is the author of the

Brahmasootra. This voluminous poorva-meemAmsa

comprises more than 2500 aphorisms (sootras) divided

into 12 chapters and 60 sub-sections. PrabhAkara and

KumArila Bhatta wrote independent commentaries on the

Jaimini Sootras.

 

The Poorva-meemAmsaka believed that only the

performances of the rituals give the necessary

benefits – mundane and heavenly and not the gods like

Indra etc. Once the the ritual is performed for a

particular desire, a shakti, named as apoorvam, is

created and that will confer the desired benefit on

the person at the appropriate time, i.e. immediately

after his natural death. That is the ultimate goal of

the human beings.

 

The poorva-meemAmsak scholars were opposed to the

study of uttara-meemAmsa which deals with the

knowledge of Brahman and the means to attain mOkSha,

salvation from the cycle of rebirths and to attain the

eternal Bliss. However, their contribution was an

elaborate epistemology which was useful to study the

Vedanta, particularly Brahmasootra.

 

Their stand was that as Brahman is a siddha vastu,

already existing object, it cannot be known through a

word, a combination of letters, and so a study of

Upanishads which explain Brahman is merely a literary

knowledge which is not at all useful from the

practical point of view. This stand of theirs was

rejected by VedAntists like BhOdayaNa, Shankara and

SrI Ramanuja.

 

SrIbhashya of SrI RamAnuja dismisses the theory of the

poorva meemAsa and establishes that both the poorva

and uttara meemAmsa form a single Scripture and one

has to begin the Vedic study with the poorva-meemAmsa,

which will make him realize that the mundane and

heavenly benefits are not only non-eternal, but very

tiny, compared to the fruit obtained through the

realization of Brahman, which is not only eternal, but

infinitely largest Bliss. There is also no fear of any

more births once a person attains Brahman, who is

SrIman nArAyaNa in the ultimate state of SrivaikuNtam.

 

This is another favour conferred by the

Lord, on sAttvika persons of high purity, by saving

them from being guided wrongly by the ritualistic

scholars and remaining in the never-ending cycle of

rebirths.

 

(To contine)

dAsan

Anbil S. SrInivAsan

-----------

 

 

 

 

______________________________\

____

Be a better friend, newshound, and

know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

http://mobile./;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ