Vedānta

Introduction

Vedānta ordinarily means the upanishads. Vedānta philosophy has three sources:

• Śruti: Vedas and Upanishads.
• Smṛti: Bhagavad-Gītā.
• Nyāya: Brahma-sūtra of Bādarāyaṇa.

The upanishads are the foundational texts of Vedānta, often referred to as the “end of the vedas”. They primarily focus on the nature of reality, relationship between the self (Atman) and the supreme reality (Brahman), and the concept of liberation (mokṣa).

The Brahma-sūtras are a systematic compilation of aphorisms that aim to summarize and clarify the teachings of the Upanishads. They serve as a framework for Vedāntic thought, addressing logical and metaphysical issues in interpreting the Upanishadic texts.

The Bhagavad-Gītā is a dialogue between Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa, taking place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. The Gita integrates key philosophical concepts from the Upanishads, such as the nature of self, duty (dharma), and devotion (bhakti) with the Vedāntic thought.

These three are technically known as Prasthānatrayam. All these three sources ultimately rest on the Upanishads.

These three sources of Vedānta have been the subject of different interpretations by different commentators. This has resulted in the development of various schools of Vedānta.

• Kevalādvaita or Pure non-dualism of Śaṅkara.
• Viśiṣṭādvaita or Qualified Non-Dualism of Rāmānuja.
• Śuddhādvaita or Pure Non-Dualism of Vallabha.
• Dvaitādvaita or non-dualism in dualism of Nimbarka.
• Dvaita or dualism of Madhava.
• Acintya-bhedābhed or unthinkable non-difference in difference of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa.

Except Ṣaṅkarites, every other school of Vedānta recognises the necessity of devotion or Bhakti in addition to knowledge as means to attainment of mokṣa or freedom from bondage.

Kevalādvaita:

Ṣaṅkara’s Kevalādvaita accepts non-dual pure consciousness, which is Brahman, as ultimately real and what is other than consciousness as other than reality. The world of experience has only empirical reality but ultimately it is false. Jīva is essentially Brahman and just like Brahman, it also is essentially consciousness.

ViśiSṭādvaita:

Rāmānuja in his Viśiṣṭādvaita accepts Qualified Brahman as ultimate reality. This Brahman has been considered as a substance and cit and acit are its parts or qualities which means that everything, conscious and unconscious, is real and is an inseparable part of Brahman. The relation between the substance and the qualities is technically known as apṛthak siddhi. The qualities are not independent of the substance. The world has been considered real by Rāmānuja, as opposed to Śaṅkara. 

Śuddhādvaita:

The Śuddhādvaitvadins reject Ṣaṅkara’s view of the falsity of the world. To them, Brahman is the unity of the parts. But the parts are not adjectives of the whole as Rāmānuja holds. The relation between the whole and the parts is the relation between the unlimited and the limited.

Dvaitādvaita:

The Dvaitādvaitins conceive of reality as both different as well as non-different from the non-dual independent reality (Brahman), different as possessing a dependent, sub-ordinate existence and non-different as possessing no independent existence. They are critics of Ṣaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and even vallabha.

Dvaita:

Madhava’s Dvaita considers duality as reality and non-duality as a fiction of imagination. The hard real world can never be rejected as false. Madhava lays down five eternal distinctions of reality —

• Distinction between one thing and another.
• Distinction between a thing and an individual soul.
• Distinction between one individual soul and another.
• Distinction between an individual and God.
• Distinction between the material world and God.

These five differences are known as Pañcabheda. Through a right comprehension of these eternal distinctions supplemented by Bhakti or devotion, one comes to know one’s place in reality and is thereby liberated from the futile desires and longings of the world.

Acintya-Bhedābhed:

Acintya-Bhedābhed is supposed to be the view of śrī Caitanya Mahaprabhu. It was founded as a school of Vedanta by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. It explains the relation between the Lord and the world as consisting in an unthinkable difference-in-non-difference. This means that the world is both distinct and inseparable from the lord in a way that transcends ordinary logic and hence is unthinkable (acintya).

The lord is endowed with three different powers —

• Jīva-śakti : The power through which the Lord manifests itself in the innumerable individual souls in the universe.
• Māyā-śakti : Manifestation of the Lord as the material cause of the world.
• Svarūpa-śakti : It is the efficient cause regulating the material cause.

The power in the lord is both different and non-different. The relation between the lord and his powers is an unthinkable difference in non-difference. The world is simultaneously part of the divine and distinct from it.

ādvaita Vedānta

The Advaita Vedanta has three stages —

• Pre-Śaṅkara
• Śaṅkara
• Post-Śaṅkara

The origin of advaita is owed to Gaudapada who wrote his famous Kārikās on the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad. The Kārikās represent the historical beginning and philosophical finality of ādvaita. Gauḍapāda admits the ultimate reality of Brahman and falsity of everything other than Brahman. He considers causality, bondage, liberation as false.

Śaṅkara held that bondage was caused due to ignorance or avidya and liberation is possible only through knowledge.Śaṅkara’s absolutism is known as kevalādvaita on its positive side and as Māyāvada on its negative side.

In ādvaita Philosophy, the world is the self-alienation of the Brahman in the sense that the world arises as an apparent separation of Brahman. An eternally negated objectification of the unobjective reality. The world is an apparent manifestation (Vivarta) of Brahman and a substantial transformation (Pariṇāma) of the nescience inherent in Brahman.

Śaṅkara introduced Māyā as the mechanism through which the illusion of the world arises. Māyā is neither real nor unreal but an indeterminate force that veils the true nature of Brahman.

Śaṅkara admits three grades of reality—

• Transcendental (Pāramārthika) : Brahman is transcendentally real as it is never negated in any of the experiences — waking, dreaming, dreamless and transcendental.
• Empirical (Vyāvahārika) : The world is empirically real as it appears only in ordinary common experience and negated in transcendental realisation of Brahman.
• Purely apparent to a person only at a particular time(Prātibhāsika) : The experience of a snake on a rope is confined to a man only at a time and it is negated when the empirical rope is known. So, the snake cannot have empirical reality. Hence, it is Prātibhāsik.

Nescience or avidyā is alone responsible for empirical reality. And for apparent reality, it is primarily responsible along with some defect in the organ of knowledge ( karaṇa doṣa ).

According to ādvaita Vedānta, Brahman is self-manifested or Svaprakāśa and all the others are manifested due to manifestation of Brahman.  Brahman is devoid of all distinctions — homogeneous (sajātīya), heterogeneous (vijātīya), and internal (svagata). The distinction between two cows is homogenous and as Brahman is one, so such distinction is not possible in its case. The distinction between a cow and a dog is heterogenous which is not possible in the context of Brahman as there is no other than it. The distinction between the limbs of a human body is internal which is impossible in the context of Brahman as it is pure and so is free from internal distinctions. Brahman is indeterminate or nirguna as any determinations will make it limited and it is free from any limitation. When Brahman is circumscribed by māyā, it is known as Saguṇa Brahman and this is God.

From the standpoint of Nirguna Brahman, māyā is tucchā (negligible), the question of its existence or non-existence doesn’t arise. From the standpoint of strict logic, it is inexplicable as it logically fails to explain any relationship between Brahman and the objective world. From the standpoint of common experience, maya is real, the very essence of the world.

The self is essentially free as it is unattached to anything. Even though the self is free, it thinks of itself to be in bondage due to its nescience.

Spiritual Sadhana:

Spiritual sadhana is necessary to remove ignorance so that the eternally free self may realise freedom which is already achieved, but not known. This is known as realization of the realized (prapta prapti).

Spiritual sadhana has two aspects —The first is the preparatory one which makes one eligible for the attainment of the knowledge of the absolute, and the second one lays down the process for realization of the ultimate reality.

The first aspect is known as Sādhana-catuṣṭaya (four ethico-metaphysical disciplines). These are :

• Nityāanityavastuvivekaḥ: distinction between the eternal and non-eternal.
• Ihāmutrārtha phalabhoga-virāgaḥ: non-attachment to the fruits of actions obtainable here or hereafter.
• Śamadamādisādhana sampat: which contains six things —
  • Śama is the control of the mind
  • Dama is the control of the external senses.
  • Uparati is the permanent withdrawal of the mind or the outer senses from objects which don’t contribute towards self-realisation.
  • Titikṣā is the cultivation of resilience towards extreme heat and cold and remaining unperturbed by such rigours.
  • Samādhāna is the concentration of the mind on objects conducive towards self-realisation.
  • Śraddhā is the unwavering faith in the truth preached by advaita.
• Mumukṣutva: The cultivation of the yearning for absolute freedom.

The preparatory stage is followed by the specific means for the realization of the truth and these are

• Śravaṇa: hearing the text Tattvamasi, ‘That Thou art’, from a competent teacher or guru.
• manana: deliberation about the impossibility of such a text and ascertainment about its possibility.
• Nididhyāsana: constant meditation on the truth.

Subsequently, there is the immediate realization that ‘I am He’. This is emancipation or liberation. This maybe attained when alive  and is called Jīvan Mukti. After that, an aspirant realizes final release with his death. This is Videha mukti.