SrI UpakAra Sangraham Part - 54

[Guest guest]

NOTE: Readers having difficulty in reading the text

may need to change their encoding to UTF-8.

--------

srI:

SrI upakAra sangraham – 54

---

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)

-----

 

We just saw how poorva-meemAsa system did not accept

the study of the uttara-meemAmsa which establishes the

ultimate reality as the Brahman which is to be

attained by all human beings by the means explained in

it. There is also just an opposite view expressed by

the advaita system that the poorva-meemAmsa can

skipped and one can directly take up the study of the

Brahma-meemAmsa, that is, the uttara-meemAmsa. This

was proposed by Adi Shankara who codified the advaita

system in his commentary on the Brahma-sootra.

 

Now, we shall consider the advaita system from which

also the Lord saved the sAttvika persons from being

misled, so that they continue their progress towards

Him in His Abode, SrIvaikuNtam.

 

The advdaita system is also known as Eka jIva-vAdam or

MAyAvAdi religion. This system is also based on the

Vedanta, the Upanishads. According to its philosophy,

Brahman is the sole Truth. It is j~nAna itself bereft

of any attributes or a form. It is known as

nirvishESha-cin-mAtra. The universe that we perceive

is a myth. Brahman itself appears as the jIva because

of avidhyA, ignorance which is also a myth. But it

envelops the Brahman leading to the different illusive

appearances including innumerable jIvas and material

objects of the sensual perception. In reality, all

these are non-existent. No one can say since when

these appearances are there. They are anAdhi – of

unknown beginning. The person who sees only these

appearances and has not realized the Brahman,

undergoes the miseries in the form birth, death,

rebirth, old age etc. in the world.

 

The advaita system is also based on the Upanishad

statements. But, it took cognizance of only those

statements which postulate the abhEda (non-difference)

theory as the true statements and rejected other

statements which speak of difference as false and they

cannot be taken as valid source of knowledge. This

system centres on five sentences from the Upanishads

and declared that one who knows the meaning of these

five sentences alone becomes a mukta, liberated soul.

 

These five sentences are:

 

1) “sadEva sOmya idamagra Aseet EkamEva advateeyam”

(ChAndOgya Upanishad, 6-2-1)

 

(Existence alone, my dear child, this was in the

beginning, one without a second.)

 

2) “satyam j~nAnamanantam brahma” Taitthireeya

Upanishad, Anadavalli, 2-1-1)

 

(The Brahman is Existence.)

 

 

3) “niShkalam niShkriyam shAntam” (shvEtArOpanishad,

6-19)

 

(He is without parts, He is without actions and He is

tranquil.)

 

4) “ayamAtmA bhrahma” (BruhadAraNyakOpnishad, 6-4-5)

 

(This Atma (the self) is the Brahman.)

 

5) “tat tvamsi” (ChAndOgya Upnishad, 6-8-7)

 

(That thou art.)

 

The Brahman, enveloped by avidhyA, attains the nature

of a jIva and dreams. In the dream, it sees other

beings and material objects. It is just as we witness

many objects during dreams and all of them disappear

as we wake up and we say those were untrue. In the

same way, the world of sentient beings and

non-sentient objects is too untrue. When the Brahman

in the form of jIva gets the knowledge of reality, it

attains salvation.

 

In the advaita system, everything other than the

Brahman is untrue. Even avidhya is false; Scriptures

are false. The knowledge acquired through the

scripture is also untrue; the world which is perceived

with that knowledge is also untrue. But, the Brahman

is self-luminous and so it is not at all affected by

the defects of either avidhya or its effects.

 

SrI rAmAnuja in his SrIbhAshya has dismissed the views

of the advaita as not correct. Merely the knowledge of

the syntactic meaning of those five sentences will not

constitute the final release from the bonded life.

Also just the removal of ignorance (avidhya) does not

result from the knowledge of the meaning of these

sentences. He pointed out that one attains salvation

only through dhyAna (meditation) and upAsana (worship)

of the Ultimate Reality, that is the Brahman Who is

none other than SrIman nArAyaNa. The meditation should

be continuous and unbroken, like a stream of oil:

 

“dhyAnam ca tailadhAravat avicchinna

smrutisantAnaroopam” (SrIbhAsyam, 1-1-1)

 

Such a firm memory is declared to be the means of

final release (mOkSha). So declare many Upanishads.

 

The theory of BhAskara:

 

The post-Shankara schools of VedAnta which did not

agree with Shankara’s brand of advaita based on

mAyAvAda, the theory of unreality of this world.

BhAskara, a strict VedAntin, presented a Brahman with

innumerable auspicious attributes, but, without any

particular form. In his view, the Brahman is of the

nature of knowledge. The appearance of numerous jIvas

and the difference between jIvas and the Brahman is

due to upAdhi (a special cause). Non-difference

between Brahman and jIvas is true. BhAskara

recommended performance of scripture-ordained duties

without any desire for their fruits and meditation on

Brahman, as a sAdhanA for the jIva’s oneness with

Brahman. As he did not accept a Personal God, there is

no place for divine grace in his system. The system of

BhAskara is described as either dvaitAdvaita or

bhEdAbhEda.

 

The theory of YAdavaprakAsha:

 

This is also bhEdAbheda system with some differences

from BhAskara’s theory. According to YAdavaprakAsha,

Brahman is separate, and at the same non-separate from

the sentient beings (jIvas) and non-sentient things in

the world. Both difference and non-difference are

natural. This system also accepts a Brahman with

attributes. Brahman itself turns into devas, humans,

animals, plants, the jIvas in the hells, jIvas in the

heaven and also mukta jIvas (liberated souls). At the

same time, the Brahman is unique in possessing

wonderful powers. This system accepts the world as

true.

 

SrIbhAshyakAra dismisses both these systems also as

inconsistent.

 

The system of Grammarian (VaiyAkaraNa system):

 

This system is similar to advaita, YAdavaism, and

Buddhism in one or two respects. The VaiyAkaraNa

system propounds a new theory by which the Brahman is

Spota which is a factor that creates the meaning of

sentences, apart from the letters, the words formed by

them, and the sentences formed by words. A section of

them says that the so called Spota which is the

Brahman itself is seen as this universe. That is the

universe is an appearance of this Spota, that is, the

Brahman.

 

It appears that this grammarians were a confuse lot.

The confusion arose because they were helping the

different religious leaders in correctly understanding

the Vedic syntax. In the process they evolved their

own theory and added to the confusion of concepts.

 

SwAmi Desikan points out that the Lord had to step in

to save the sAttvik persons from being caught in this

mess of conflicting theories, in order that they

progress towards attaining Him ultimately.

 

With this, we come to the end of the eleventh favour

conferred by the Lord on the evolving jIvas.

 

(To continue)

dAsan

Anbil S.SrInivAsan

-------

 

 

 

 

______________________________\

____

Looking for last minute shopping deals?

Find them fast with Search.

http://tools.search./newsearch/category.php?category=shopping