SAIVA SIDDHANTA AND ADVAITA, Harish Damodaran [i can read with my eyes shut .TXT] 📗
- Author: Harish Damodaran
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Brahama Vidya is discussed in detail.
The fourth and last chapter namely Phala adhyaya deals with the fruits of Brahama Vidya, and also the description of pitryana (rituals to ancestors) and devayana (way to devotion).
For Badarayana, Veda is eternal. He declares that there is no possibility of discovering metaphysical truth by means of tarka (yukthy) or reflection. Sruti and Smriti are two sources of knowledge. By Sruti Badaryana meant Upanidas and by Smriti he meant Bhagavat geeta, Mahabharata, and code of Manu (Manusmriti). Smriti is dependent on sruti. But Sruti is independent and self-evident. But, to the question whether cosmic view or acosmic view is the higher view, Sutra does not give a clear answer. There fore, Adi Sankaracharya interprets the Sutra view as acosmic view, while, both Sri Ramanuja and Madhavacharya interpret the same as cosmic view. It is on the acosmic view, thus, the doctrine of Advaita is built upon.
By interpreting the Brahma Sutra in the acosmic way, the Advaitin gains a logical footing upon which they can keep their school of thought, Advaita in perfect balance.
Sruti is the name given to the Vedas and the Upanisads which are treated with great respect in Advaita philosophy. The term 'Sruti' means that which is heard. Sages, by long disciplines and preparations, made themselves fit vehicles for receiving and conveying the eternal truth to the rest of the mankind. Sruti gives us what has occurred in the intuitive minds of the saints and the sages at the time of exalted imagination. Hence, Sruti is the word of the Absolute.
In Advaita view the Upanishads are for the sake of the establishment of the immediate experience of Brahman. They are capable of generating immediate as well as mediate knowledge. For example the statement “you are the tenth man” certainly results immediate knowledge of one man being the tenth person for the one who lost himself in counting. Like wise, by listening to the Upanisads one can get immediate intuition of Brahman. If one does not experience so, it is not because the Upanisads are incapable of it. It is only because there is no reasoning involved.
According to Advaita, the Brahman alone is real and it is known by Sruti. But Sruti itself is unreal in the third and highest level of reality. Though unreal, it can sublate the illusory world and reveal Brahman. It is like roar of the dream-lion that can wake one up.
The Scriptures (the Vedas and the Upanisads) are the record of spiritual experience and they do convey an idea of what the Ultimate is like. The special merit of the Scriptures lie in that they alone can reveal any knowledge about the Ultimate.
The Scriptures are composed of sentences or vakyas which in their turn, are composed of words arranged in specific order so as to convey certain meaning words are the vehicles of thought. ‘Sabda’ means sound and word. Sabda pramana is, thus the knowledge derived from the authority of words.
The Advaithins have commentaries on all the ten important upanisads and one later upanisad. They are Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mandukya, Chandoya, Thaithiriya, Aitharey, Mundaka and Brihadaranyaka along with Svetasvaratha.
The Advaita interprets the Upanisads as the proclamations of acosmic view of the Brahman. Whatever appears to be describing the cosmic view of the Brahman is ascribed to the vyavaharika level of reality. It is meant for the ordinary people to understand the basic principles of philosophy. So, it must not be taken up as anti-advaitic. All descriptions of whole and parts absolute and relative, finite and infinite are transcendent in the Brahman.
When the Isavasya Upanisad declares “isavasyam idam sarvam”14, the Advaitin interprets it in an un-orthdox way. Traditional meaning is that “the Lord Isvara dwells everywhere in this world.” But the Advaitin explains this as “the world must be covered with Isvara”. and so on and this does not harm the Advaitic concept of “jagat mithya”.
The Mundaka Upanisad Speaks pure Advaita when it describes the individual soul, like an arrow reaches the target the Brahman and becomes one with it15.
In this way, all the major Upanisads are skill fully interpreted in the Advaitic line of thinking. Thus, we can see that the Sruti never contradicts the doctrines of the Advaita Vedanta. Sruti, infact, has given the philosophical back ground upon which the system of Advaita stands.
The Bhagavat Gita (the song celestial) belongs to the Smrithi Prastana. It is an important source of the school of Advaita. Of the three prastanas, the upanisads (sruti prastana) give the philosophical back ground for Advaita, where as, the Brahma Sutra (Nyaya prastana) supplies a logical standpoint of reason. The Advaitins look forword to the third prastana, the Bhagavat Gita, for the guidelines to practice Advaita in daily life. According to them the Bhagavat Gita teaches how to live a life worthy of living, in accordance with the system of Advaita.
The Bhagavat Gita is the teaching of Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshetra. The Bhagavat Gita’s importance in the religio-philosophical literature of India is second only to the Upanisads. The poem, with its 18 chapters form a part of the great epic Mahabharata, where it describes the two rival armies of the Pandavas and the Kauravas engaged against each other.
The occasion, which calls forth the teaching is of extreme seriousness (when the fate of the country as well as the righteousness in peril). It is written in a simple and charming style and is in the form of a dialogue, which gives it a dramatic appearance. The massage that it gives is of supreme value and is applicable to every man in every country. It does not discuss in detail any deep philosophical problems or subtle details of ethics but only gives broad principles relating to term. The most significant attraction of the Bhagavat Gita is its spint of tolerance, which is the most important characteristic of Indian thought.
The central teaching of the Bhagavat Gita is actionism or karmayoga. To understand clearly the meaning of ‘Karmayoga’, the words ‘Karma’ and ‘Yoga’ are to be analysed seperately. ‘Karma’ means ‘What is done’ or ‘a deed’. Karma Signifies that particular form of activity, which is taught in the Karma Kanda of the Vedas namely sacrifice (yoga). But in Bhagavat Gita it signifies duty in accordance with custom and tradition, which were found associated at the time with particular section or class of people, the Varnadharmas, as they are called. Again Karma is used in a sense as to signify divine worship or devotional duty (puja).
The meaning the Bhagavat Gita admits for Karma is that of ‘Social obligation’. The word ‘yoga’ means ‘harnessing’ or ‘applying to oneself. So by ‘karmayoga’ the Bhagavat Gita means ‘devotion to the discharge of social obligation’.
The Bhagavat Gita stresses ‘nishkama karma’ or performing the duties without the least desire for its results. People do karmas because they are attracted by the fruits of the karmas (Karma phala). This is not the kind of the karma, the Bhagavat Gita advocates. Because this kind of Karma is not pure. It is tainted by desire (kama). For the ‘song celestial’, Karma is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. There fore, the aim of the result must be dismissed all together from the mind, before as well as during the act. Such an act is called ‘nishkama karma’ or selfless action.
The Advaitins have not even the slightest objection to the concept of the nishkama karma. They accept it whole-heartedly. This forms the pragmatic side of the Advaita Vedanta.
Again for those who cannot take up ‘Karmayoga’, the Bhagavat Gita suggests ‘KarmaSanyasa’. That is, through renunciation too, the seeker can find his liberation. This, also, is in tune with the Advaitic View. One who is in the paramarthika level of reality is above and beyond all the Karmas.
The Bhagavat Gita puts forward, the concept of the sthitha prajna. The Sthitha prajna is a man of steady wisdom. He is liberated from the chain of endless karmas. He is the Jivan Mukta upon whom Advaita vedanta showers all its praises.
The picture of the God, Purushotama, as shown by the Bhagavat Gita suits to the Suguna Brahman or Iswara of the Advaita Vedanta. He is the very embodiment of existence, essence and excellence of all the qualities.
Thus, in short the Bhagavat Gita, as a source book, saves the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta from the danger of being other-worldly and self- centred.
This divine song shows the light to follow the right path for the Advaitins. It tells them how to live and how to act. It is the real path to liberation.
Among the secondary sources of the Advaita Vedanta, the Mandukya karika by Sri Gaudapadacharya holds a very high position. Gaudapadacharya is the Guru of the Guru of Sri Sankaracharya and therefore, known as the ‘Parama Guru’.
On the first look, the Mandukya karika is a commentary on the mandukya Upanisad. But, in fact, by writing a commentary on the Mandukya Upanisad. Sri Gaudapadacharya is astablishing the system of Advaita Vedanta.
Sri Gaudapadacharya bases his philosophy on the doctrine of no-origination or ‘ajathi vada’. Through the Mandukya karika (other wise called Gaudapada karika), he establishes the reality of non-dual self.
The Maudukya Upanisad begins with the equation Aum=All=Brahman=Self and proceeds to describe the three states of the self viz; Jagrat (waking), Swapna (Dreaming), Sushupti (deep sleep) and Thuriya (Forth stage). Sri Gaudapadacharya makes this declaration of the Upanisad as the basis of his metaphysical quest and seeks to show through reasoning that no originate is the final truth.
The Gaudapada karika gives clear evidence that Sri Gaudapadacharya is the first systematic exponent of Advaita Vedanta. The central principles of the Advaita school of thought such as orders of reality the identity of the invidual soul (atman) and Brahman the concept of Maya the inapplicability of causation to the ultimate reality and Jnana as the direct means to Moksa are all set forth in the Mandukya karika.
However, the negative tendency is more prominent in his view, since it is in close resemblance with a kind of sunyadava (Nihilsam). Although it is not as balanced as Sri Sankaracharya’s view, its importance as an attempt to combine in one whole the negative logic of Madhyamika Buddhism with the positive idealism of the Upanishadic thought can not be ignored. Sri Gaudapadacharya is liable to the change of subjectivism in the traditional sense since he uses the arguments, which the Buddhistic VijnAnavadins employed to prove the unreality of the external objects of perception.
The Mandukya karika explains the doctrine of Maya as the inexplicability of the relation between Atman and the world, the nature or power of Isvara and the apparent dream like appearance of the world. Of these three the first one has been later taken by Sri Sankaracharya and given great prominence in order to develop the school of Advaita into its present form.
The term ‘Advaita’ simply means ‘non-dual’ or ‘not two’. In other words, plainly speaking, the absolute self, the Brahman and the individual self, Jiva are not two. By using the term 'Advaita', it can be said that the scholars prefer to indirectly imply the Unity of the Brahman and the Jiva, rather than stating it directly16. Therefore, Advaitins do not directly say that the Jiva and Brahman are one and the same, but say that both are not different from each other.
The fourth and last chapter namely Phala adhyaya deals with the fruits of Brahama Vidya, and also the description of pitryana (rituals to ancestors) and devayana (way to devotion).
For Badarayana, Veda is eternal. He declares that there is no possibility of discovering metaphysical truth by means of tarka (yukthy) or reflection. Sruti and Smriti are two sources of knowledge. By Sruti Badaryana meant Upanidas and by Smriti he meant Bhagavat geeta, Mahabharata, and code of Manu (Manusmriti). Smriti is dependent on sruti. But Sruti is independent and self-evident. But, to the question whether cosmic view or acosmic view is the higher view, Sutra does not give a clear answer. There fore, Adi Sankaracharya interprets the Sutra view as acosmic view, while, both Sri Ramanuja and Madhavacharya interpret the same as cosmic view. It is on the acosmic view, thus, the doctrine of Advaita is built upon.
By interpreting the Brahma Sutra in the acosmic way, the Advaitin gains a logical footing upon which they can keep their school of thought, Advaita in perfect balance.
Sruti is the name given to the Vedas and the Upanisads which are treated with great respect in Advaita philosophy. The term 'Sruti' means that which is heard. Sages, by long disciplines and preparations, made themselves fit vehicles for receiving and conveying the eternal truth to the rest of the mankind. Sruti gives us what has occurred in the intuitive minds of the saints and the sages at the time of exalted imagination. Hence, Sruti is the word of the Absolute.
In Advaita view the Upanishads are for the sake of the establishment of the immediate experience of Brahman. They are capable of generating immediate as well as mediate knowledge. For example the statement “you are the tenth man” certainly results immediate knowledge of one man being the tenth person for the one who lost himself in counting. Like wise, by listening to the Upanisads one can get immediate intuition of Brahman. If one does not experience so, it is not because the Upanisads are incapable of it. It is only because there is no reasoning involved.
According to Advaita, the Brahman alone is real and it is known by Sruti. But Sruti itself is unreal in the third and highest level of reality. Though unreal, it can sublate the illusory world and reveal Brahman. It is like roar of the dream-lion that can wake one up.
The Scriptures (the Vedas and the Upanisads) are the record of spiritual experience and they do convey an idea of what the Ultimate is like. The special merit of the Scriptures lie in that they alone can reveal any knowledge about the Ultimate.
The Scriptures are composed of sentences or vakyas which in their turn, are composed of words arranged in specific order so as to convey certain meaning words are the vehicles of thought. ‘Sabda’ means sound and word. Sabda pramana is, thus the knowledge derived from the authority of words.
The Advaithins have commentaries on all the ten important upanisads and one later upanisad. They are Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mandukya, Chandoya, Thaithiriya, Aitharey, Mundaka and Brihadaranyaka along with Svetasvaratha.
The Advaita interprets the Upanisads as the proclamations of acosmic view of the Brahman. Whatever appears to be describing the cosmic view of the Brahman is ascribed to the vyavaharika level of reality. It is meant for the ordinary people to understand the basic principles of philosophy. So, it must not be taken up as anti-advaitic. All descriptions of whole and parts absolute and relative, finite and infinite are transcendent in the Brahman.
When the Isavasya Upanisad declares “isavasyam idam sarvam”14, the Advaitin interprets it in an un-orthdox way. Traditional meaning is that “the Lord Isvara dwells everywhere in this world.” But the Advaitin explains this as “the world must be covered with Isvara”. and so on and this does not harm the Advaitic concept of “jagat mithya”.
The Mundaka Upanisad Speaks pure Advaita when it describes the individual soul, like an arrow reaches the target the Brahman and becomes one with it15.
In this way, all the major Upanisads are skill fully interpreted in the Advaitic line of thinking. Thus, we can see that the Sruti never contradicts the doctrines of the Advaita Vedanta. Sruti, infact, has given the philosophical back ground upon which the system of Advaita stands.
The Bhagavat Gita (the song celestial) belongs to the Smrithi Prastana. It is an important source of the school of Advaita. Of the three prastanas, the upanisads (sruti prastana) give the philosophical back ground for Advaita, where as, the Brahma Sutra (Nyaya prastana) supplies a logical standpoint of reason. The Advaitins look forword to the third prastana, the Bhagavat Gita, for the guidelines to practice Advaita in daily life. According to them the Bhagavat Gita teaches how to live a life worthy of living, in accordance with the system of Advaita.
The Bhagavat Gita is the teaching of Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshetra. The Bhagavat Gita’s importance in the religio-philosophical literature of India is second only to the Upanisads. The poem, with its 18 chapters form a part of the great epic Mahabharata, where it describes the two rival armies of the Pandavas and the Kauravas engaged against each other.
The occasion, which calls forth the teaching is of extreme seriousness (when the fate of the country as well as the righteousness in peril). It is written in a simple and charming style and is in the form of a dialogue, which gives it a dramatic appearance. The massage that it gives is of supreme value and is applicable to every man in every country. It does not discuss in detail any deep philosophical problems or subtle details of ethics but only gives broad principles relating to term. The most significant attraction of the Bhagavat Gita is its spint of tolerance, which is the most important characteristic of Indian thought.
The central teaching of the Bhagavat Gita is actionism or karmayoga. To understand clearly the meaning of ‘Karmayoga’, the words ‘Karma’ and ‘Yoga’ are to be analysed seperately. ‘Karma’ means ‘What is done’ or ‘a deed’. Karma Signifies that particular form of activity, which is taught in the Karma Kanda of the Vedas namely sacrifice (yoga). But in Bhagavat Gita it signifies duty in accordance with custom and tradition, which were found associated at the time with particular section or class of people, the Varnadharmas, as they are called. Again Karma is used in a sense as to signify divine worship or devotional duty (puja).
The meaning the Bhagavat Gita admits for Karma is that of ‘Social obligation’. The word ‘yoga’ means ‘harnessing’ or ‘applying to oneself. So by ‘karmayoga’ the Bhagavat Gita means ‘devotion to the discharge of social obligation’.
The Bhagavat Gita stresses ‘nishkama karma’ or performing the duties without the least desire for its results. People do karmas because they are attracted by the fruits of the karmas (Karma phala). This is not the kind of the karma, the Bhagavat Gita advocates. Because this kind of Karma is not pure. It is tainted by desire (kama). For the ‘song celestial’, Karma is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. There fore, the aim of the result must be dismissed all together from the mind, before as well as during the act. Such an act is called ‘nishkama karma’ or selfless action.
The Advaitins have not even the slightest objection to the concept of the nishkama karma. They accept it whole-heartedly. This forms the pragmatic side of the Advaita Vedanta.
Again for those who cannot take up ‘Karmayoga’, the Bhagavat Gita suggests ‘KarmaSanyasa’. That is, through renunciation too, the seeker can find his liberation. This, also, is in tune with the Advaitic View. One who is in the paramarthika level of reality is above and beyond all the Karmas.
The Bhagavat Gita puts forward, the concept of the sthitha prajna. The Sthitha prajna is a man of steady wisdom. He is liberated from the chain of endless karmas. He is the Jivan Mukta upon whom Advaita vedanta showers all its praises.
The picture of the God, Purushotama, as shown by the Bhagavat Gita suits to the Suguna Brahman or Iswara of the Advaita Vedanta. He is the very embodiment of existence, essence and excellence of all the qualities.
Thus, in short the Bhagavat Gita, as a source book, saves the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta from the danger of being other-worldly and self- centred.
This divine song shows the light to follow the right path for the Advaitins. It tells them how to live and how to act. It is the real path to liberation.
Among the secondary sources of the Advaita Vedanta, the Mandukya karika by Sri Gaudapadacharya holds a very high position. Gaudapadacharya is the Guru of the Guru of Sri Sankaracharya and therefore, known as the ‘Parama Guru’.
On the first look, the Mandukya karika is a commentary on the mandukya Upanisad. But, in fact, by writing a commentary on the Mandukya Upanisad. Sri Gaudapadacharya is astablishing the system of Advaita Vedanta.
Sri Gaudapadacharya bases his philosophy on the doctrine of no-origination or ‘ajathi vada’. Through the Mandukya karika (other wise called Gaudapada karika), he establishes the reality of non-dual self.
The Maudukya Upanisad begins with the equation Aum=All=Brahman=Self and proceeds to describe the three states of the self viz; Jagrat (waking), Swapna (Dreaming), Sushupti (deep sleep) and Thuriya (Forth stage). Sri Gaudapadacharya makes this declaration of the Upanisad as the basis of his metaphysical quest and seeks to show through reasoning that no originate is the final truth.
The Gaudapada karika gives clear evidence that Sri Gaudapadacharya is the first systematic exponent of Advaita Vedanta. The central principles of the Advaita school of thought such as orders of reality the identity of the invidual soul (atman) and Brahman the concept of Maya the inapplicability of causation to the ultimate reality and Jnana as the direct means to Moksa are all set forth in the Mandukya karika.
However, the negative tendency is more prominent in his view, since it is in close resemblance with a kind of sunyadava (Nihilsam). Although it is not as balanced as Sri Sankaracharya’s view, its importance as an attempt to combine in one whole the negative logic of Madhyamika Buddhism with the positive idealism of the Upanishadic thought can not be ignored. Sri Gaudapadacharya is liable to the change of subjectivism in the traditional sense since he uses the arguments, which the Buddhistic VijnAnavadins employed to prove the unreality of the external objects of perception.
The Mandukya karika explains the doctrine of Maya as the inexplicability of the relation between Atman and the world, the nature or power of Isvara and the apparent dream like appearance of the world. Of these three the first one has been later taken by Sri Sankaracharya and given great prominence in order to develop the school of Advaita into its present form.
The term ‘Advaita’ simply means ‘non-dual’ or ‘not two’. In other words, plainly speaking, the absolute self, the Brahman and the individual self, Jiva are not two. By using the term 'Advaita', it can be said that the scholars prefer to indirectly imply the Unity of the Brahman and the Jiva, rather than stating it directly16. Therefore, Advaitins do not directly say that the Jiva and Brahman are one and the same, but say that both are not different from each other.
CHAPTER 3
NATURE OF BONDAGE
3.1. Nature of Bondage in Saiva Siddhanta
The Saiva Siddhanta is essentially theistic and at the same time pluralistic. It posits three external verieties –Pati (God), Pasu (soul) and Pasa (the bonds). Pasas, otherwise called malas are three in number viz; Anava, Karma and Maya. Of these, Maya is of two kinds as, SuddhaMaya and asuddhaMaya. Thus, we have
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