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Visistadvaita a Philosophy of Religion

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Visistadvaita a Philosophy of Religion Visistadvaita A Philosophy of Religion K.R.Paramahamsa 1 Dedicated to the Being of Sri Sathya Sai TAT Embodied 2 3 Table of Contents Page No Preface 7 1. Visistadvaita - A Darsana 11 2. The Theory of Knowledge 19 General 19 Dharmabhuta-jnaana(Phenomenological Consciousness) 24 Svarupa-jnaana(Existential Consciousness) & Dharmabhuta-jnaana (Phenomenological Consciousness)-Interrelationship 31 3. The Theory of Judgment 36 4. The Theory of Relations 41 5. Truth, Error and Avidya 46 Truth 46 Error 49 Avidya 54 6. Saguna Brahman 62 The Brahman as Adhara 74 The Brahman as Satya 79 The Brahman as Jnaana 83 The Brahman as Ananta 91 The Brahman as Bhuvana Sundara 96 The Brahman as Saririn 110 The Brahman as Sesin 121 The Brahman as Niyantr 128 The Brahman as Redeemer 141 7. Cosmology 157 8. The Psychology of Jivatman 162 9. Mukti-Mumuksutva 170 Mukti 170 Mumuksutva 181 4 5 10.Ways to Salvation 185 Preface Karma-yoga 185 Jnaana-yoga 189 Visistadvaita, as a philosophy of religion, not only interprets Bhakti-yoga 195 metaphysics in terms of religion, and religion in terms of Prapatti-yoga 204 metaphysics, but equates the two by the common designation 11.The Mysticism of Visistadviata 216 darsana. Darsana connotes a Vedanta philosophical system as 12.The Theology of Srivaisnavism 223 well as spiritual perception of Reality, and may be explained as an 13.Srivaisnavism of Visistadvaita 231 integral intuition of the Brahman. 14.Evolution of Vaisnavism 240 Narayana-Visnu 240 In extreme monism, the Brahman is jnaana and is realized Sankarsana-Baladeva 246 by jnaana. Extreme theism distrusts the intellect and relies on Pancaraatra 255 scriptural faith. But in Visistadvaita, the Brahman can be enquired into as well as experienced. Conceptual knowledge of God is exalted by the soul-sense of God, and the soul-sight of God is rationalized by conceptual knowledge. Ramanuja integrates the experiences of risis and Alvars in relation to the Brahman, the Supreme Self, and expounds what is called Ubhaya-Vedanta. As a philosopher-saint, he establishes the truths of Visistadvaita as embodied in the Vedantasutras. Simultaneously, he elucidates each adhikarana of the Sutras as experience of the Brahman, brahmanubhava. He gives a critical exposition of the experiences of the Alvars by showing their logical coherence. As a saint, he experiences God, and as a philosopher, he proves the truths of spiritual experience. He establishes that Sribhashyam, his commentary on Vedantasutras, and the Bhagavad- visaya, the logical exposition of the spiritual experiences of Nammalvar, are similar in content and look to the Brahman as the Ultimate to be attained. He is thus the exponent of Vedanta as stated in Vedantasutras and in Bhagavad-visaya and is, therefore, considered the architect of Ubhaya-Vedanta. The end and aim of Ubhaya-Vedanta is summed up in the Upanisad itself: ‘He who knows the Brahman attains the Highest’. 6 7 The catholicity of Visistadvaita lies in its synthetic insight Ramanuja, Vedanta Desika, etc. These seers along with the Alvars into truth, and the spiritual transformation of such insight into have made Srivaisnavism a religion of spiritial realization. universal love. Ramanuja’s synthetic method consists in his conclusion that all ideas and names ultimately connote the This book Visistadvaita - A Philosophy of Religion borrows Brahman, Narayana, that the worship of deities like Indra is really considerably from the work ‘The Philosophy of Visistadvaita’ by the worship of Narayana, the inner ruler of all beings. The terms P.N.Srinivasachari, a very well researched and creative presentation. sarva-saririn, sarva-sabdavacya and sarva-raksaka refer only to the Brahman or Narayana. Srivaisnavism, as a living religion, owes itself to Ramanuja. He has moulded it into a religion of sattvic love based on sastraic authority and spiritual experience. Visistadvaitic Srivaisnavism lays stress on personal mystic experience rather than on super naturalism and historicity. It guarantees God to all persons, and affords a philosophic basis for religious consciousness. For Ramanuja, God is love, the atman is eternal and the Paramatman is immanent. The idea of God as the saririn of all and as indwelling love is the contribution of Ramanuja. This concept offers the most inspiring motive for philosophic enlightenment and achievement of social integration. Visistadvaita is not a mere metaphysical enquiry into the nature of the Brahman as the ground of existence, but it is also a spiritual method of attaining the Brahman as the supreme end of life. Thus Visistadvaita establishes itself as a philosophy of religion. It is significant to note that the term Visistadvaita is generally translated into English as Qualified Non-dualism. What is qualified in Visistadvaita is not Non-dualism, but the Brahman. Visistadvaita propounds that the Brahman is saguna as opposed to nirguna, though ontologically. It subscribes to the theory of Non- dualism, though of the Saguna Brahman. It is also significant to note that while Vaisnavism has evolved predating the Christian era as a non-Vedic religion of rites, Srivaisnavism, as a Vedic religion, has been the contribution of Vedic seers such as Sri 8 9 1. Visistadvaita - A Darsana A Darsana is a body of eternal and impersonal spiritual truths enshrined in Sruti, which can be logically tested and verified in personal experience. Sruti is self-valid, and the self-explanation of existence in its wholeness and of experience in its integrity. The Vedanta Darsanas afford insight into the nature of the Brahman. The ultimate proof of the existence of the Brahman is the experience of the Brahman. It is not tarka-drsti, the way of reasoning and dialectic, but tattva-drsti, the soul-sight of the Brahman, by knowing which everything is known. Visistadvaita, a Vedanta Darsana, maintains its position in the history of Indian thought by establishing its own siddhanta by a criticism of rival systems. It has, at the same time, a synthetic insight into the essentials of other Darsanas, and accepts whatever in them is consistent with its basic principles. It is neither pure philosophy nor pure religion. It is a true philosophy of religion, which reconciles the opposition between philosophy and religion, and the conflict between monism and pluralism. If it is liberally interpreted in terms of contemporary philosophy and comparative religion without, in any way, sacrificing its foundational principles, it is capable of satisfying the demands of science and philosophy on the one hand, and of ethics and religion on the other. It is the task of philosophy as an intellectual enquiry into the whole of reality to frame the ultimate problems of life. The three persistent problems of philosophy relate to God, nature and the self. Of them, the enquiry into the nature of God is the most valuable. The existence of God is established by the well-known theistic proofs, and not by revealed theology. Faith and reason belong to different realms. It is impossible to prove the existence of God by logical thinking. On the other hand, mere reason is ill founded and self-contradictory. As free thought leads to atheism, blind faith leads to dogmatism. 10 11 The conflict between faith and philosophy is mainly due to cannot be built on the foundations of the physical-chemical sciences the difference in their method of approach or enquiry. Faith claims and mathematics. Polytheism, in whatever form, cannot satisfy finality. When it is supported by reason working in a subordinate the demand of reason for unity, and the ethical claims of capacity, it becomes dogmatic. When dogma is sanctioned by righteousness. tradition, and sanctified by the worship of word, it claims absolute allegiance. Faith then results in fanaticism. The second is that of the collision between vitalism and animism. Vitalism accepts the primacy of reason, but denies the On the other hand, philosophy rejects the way of faith. It validity of faith. It also repudiates the mechanistic view of life. accepts only the guidance of reason, and follows its conclusions. On the other hand, animism attributes life and divinity to nature. But, quite often, it starts doubting everything, and ends with doubts, It assumes different forms such as metempsychosis, fetishism, with no solutions to the problems posed by it. The advancement totemism and spiritism. According to it, every natural object is of reason, for its own sake and unrelated to spiritual intuition, only animate and endowed with spirit. leads to atheism. Theology, therefore, condemns its guidance and takes refuse in faith. This conflict between faith and philosophy Visistadvaita is opposed to both the philosophy of vitalism will cease only if they get reconciled in a true philosophy of religion. and the religion of animism. According to it, reality is life, but the category of life does not exhaust the whole range of reality. Living Visistadvaita offers a contrast to mere philosophical cells and protoplasm cannot adequately express the highest moral speculation on the whole of reality on one hand, and to religion in and spiritual values of experience. the sense of a faith in revealed theology on the other. Theology insists on dogmatic faith in truths regarded as infallible on account Vedanta does not accept animism in any form as true of scriptural authority or divine disclosure. It is by its nature religion. True religion begins with theism, and not with animism. antagonistic to the free exercise of reason on the facts provided by To identify image worship with fetishism betrays ignorance and human experience, which is the hallmark of philosophy. prejudice, as the image is the incarnation of the Infinite in the finite. Ramanuja’s system of Visistadvaita recognizes the claims of both faith and reason. It aims at harmonizing or reconciling them. It The third realm of conflict is between sensationalism and admits a free play of reason as to the data of sense perception and anthropomorphism.
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