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Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies Volume 16 Article 6 January 2003 Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita T.S. Rukmani Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Rukmani, T.S. (2003) "Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita," Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies: Vol. 16, Article 6. Available at: https://doi.org/10.7825/2164-6279.1295 The Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies is a publication of the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies. The digital version is made available by Digital Commons @ Butler University. For questions about the Journal or the Society, please contact [email protected]. For more information about Digital Commons @ Butler University, please contact [email protected]. Rukmani: Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita T.S. Rukmani Concordia University I HAVE had the privilege of meeting Dr. as if they mean the same thing. In such an Richard De Smet in Shimla at the Indian approach there is injustice done to both the Institute of Advanced Study, when we both systems and one ends up trying to, participated in a Seminar organized by the sometimes, fit round circles into square Institute in 1989. We had opportunities of pegs. It is wise to acknowledge that religious. discussing Sankara's Brahman and the and theological schools that rise and grow in Christian concept of God at that time different cultural milieus can have a without being able to fully understand each rationale of their own and the best we can other's position. That has been at the back of do, as scholars, is to understand and my mind all these years, and I was happy appreciate the dynamics of that growth in when Bradley Malkovsky asked me to write their own setting. There is a historical on Dr. De Smet's view of Sankara's dimension to every growth, and we sit on Brahman for the Bulletin. I thus got an the shoulders of our predecessors such that a opportunity to revisit that topic ·again and comparative study can only "pretend" to be have done so in what follows. Needless to an independent, objective approach. A say that, because of the limitation of space, I corollary to that is the question as to whether have not been able to do full justice to the the judgment - of another topic. philosophy/theology/religion will be Before I venture to write something on acceptable to the other, when the approach is Dr. De Smet's approach to the ontological generally based on the values, concepts, understanding of the Brahman-concept in even the vocabulary and language of the one Sankara's Advaita Vedanta (hereafter who studies the other, which the other need Advaita), I would ·like . to state what I not or does not recognize. understand by comparative work. In order to In Dr. De Smet's case we know that he do a comparative study of two different was working through the languages in which religions o.r theologies, either in a religious the original material of the two schools he or theological sense, it is not necessary to studied was available as for instance, somehow fit the ontology·and epistemology Sanskrit for Sankara's Advaita and English of the two systems being studied to appear or any other language for the other T. S. Rukmani is currently Professor and Chair of Hindu Studies at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada and was previously the first Chair in Hindu Studies and Indian Philosophy at the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa from 1993-1995. She holds Ph.D. and D.Litt. degrees from the University of Delhi, where her last assignment was as Principal, Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is a Sanskritist by training, and her areas of specialization are religious and theological issues in Hinduism, reform movements in India, women studies, Gandhian studies, Indian philosophy (in particular Advaita Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga) and the Upanishads. She is the author of ten books and numerous journal articles: Her latest books are Yogasutrabhasyavivarana, Vols. I and II (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2001) and Yogasutras of Patanjali with the Commentary ofVyasa (Chair in Hindu Studies 2001). Hindu-Christian Studies Bulletin -16 (2003) 12-21 Published by Digital Commons @ Butler University, 2003 1 Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, Vol. 16 [2003], Art. 6 Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita 13 Assuming his competence in these the term in the west, but perhaps a languages, he still had to transcend the arena hermeneutic unraveling of the acosmic of translations and somehow be able to (nisprapanca) meanings hidden ill the creatively intuit the meanings of the foreign Upanisads. concepts that he intended to compare and While in Christianity God is the which come with a lot of previous cultural Supreme; ontological Absolute, Sankara's and intellectual baggage. Advaita "has no room for gods or deity, . So there are a number of obstacles to excepting as a provisional posit. It has no overcome if indeed we cando an honest, room for God except in the context of a comparative work between two schools of (metaphysically) ignorant person's inquiry thought, from two very different cultures. about the cause of the universe which Because of the above limitations it is easy to unknown to him is only an unreal concur with B.K.Matilal's understanding of appearance (and so is not in need of a comparative work (though he was speaking creator).,,4 Thus we are conscious of the with reference to comparative philosophy) diametrically opposite ways of thinking of as "the task of explaining and translating the Ultimate, Ontological Entity, as well as classical Indian philosophical texts in a the different views of western language". 1 Since Sankara , s CreationlManifestation, that such divergent Advaita is closer to philosophy than to views entail. theology or religion this is relevant for our In this paper, I try and focus on three purpose and would come closest to what I published papers of De Smet, entitled would count as doing a comparative study. "Advaitavada and Christianity" (1973) When we take up the question of De (hereafter "Advaitavada,,)5, "Origin: Smet's comparative study of Christianity Creation and Emanation" (1978) (hereafter and Advaita, all the above thoughts crowd "Origin"),6 and "Forward Steps in Sankara one's mind. As a Christian theologian, it Research" (1987) (hereafter "Forward became important for De Smet to somehow Steps"),7 where he engages in a comparison find parallels between Advaita, the of some concepts in Advaita and paramount philosophical/theologiCal school Christianity, with a view to arriving at a in the mind of the Hindus in general, and convergence. I would have liked to have Christianity, for, in common. with other more of his publications for this study, but, theologians, a deeper theological exchange unfortunately, these were the only ones between followers of these two spiritual which were readily available. So if there are paths was possible only when other views and revisions presented in any misconceptions could be cleared away. 2 later papers, I plead guilty for not consulting De Smet's primary loyalty to Christian them, for in spite of my best efforts, I did theology and his love for Sankara's Advaita not succeed in procuring them. But I have expressed movingly as "From Sankara I had access to the excellent paper on "The learned to focus on the non-dualistic creative Personhood of S ankara , s Para Brahman" presence in me - and in all creatures - of the (1997) by Malkovskl as well as the volume absolute Brahman as my constant Ground of papers published (2000), in and Cause and thus Supreme Saksin and commemoration of the passing away of Dr. Atman", goaded him to find parallels De Smet in 1997 edited by Malkovsky.9 3 between these two systems , one of which is Froin these sources I can surmise that De out and out a theology with belief in a Smet did not change or modify his basic personal God, who created everything out of stand from his early publications regarding nothing, and the other not a theology in the his understanding of the concepts in strict sense of the term, maybe not a Advaita, based on which he made the philosophy as well in the accepted sense of comparative studies. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/jhcs/vol16/iss1/6 DOI: 10.7825/2164-6279.1295 2 Rukmani: Dr. Richard De Smet and Sankara's Advaita 14 T.S. Rukmani If my reading of De Smet is right, then uses these hermeneutic devices to interpret the main concern he had was with the the Prasthanatrayi in accordance with his Nirguna nature of Brahman as pure Advaita stance. Consciousness that could not permit the Given this importance to the exegetical attribution of a creative function to It. Since tradition of interpretation we cannot afford only a person having 'personhood' can have to ignore Sankara's methodological a relation of creativity to the world, approach to the understanding of each of the Christian theologians in general, and De sections (adhikarana) in Badarayana's Smet in particular, who is our focus, try to Brahmasutras (BS). His commentaries on find attribution of personhood to the the BS as well as the Upanisads (UP) and Nirguna Brahman. De Smet services a the Gita are very often preceded by a number of devices and uses some selective preamble to the concerned section, where he readings from Sankara's works to arrive at states his thesis and prepares the reader for the conclusion that it is possible to posit what follows in the subsequent sections of personhood to Brahman and thus link it with the particular chapter.
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