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PHILOSOPHY

Yajnavalkya on Concept of Gods

9/25/2020

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Yajnavalkya was acclaimed rishi or scientist in period 8th to 7th century BC. Once, Raja Janaka held a debate on spirituality which was attended by a large of sages and rishis including Yajnavalkya. During a debate, Vidagadha Sakalya raised several questions relating on types and number of gods. The debate has been mentioned in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Yajnavalkya explained the cause, types and the number gods and their basis. The details of questions raised and replies are as under:
 

1.    How many gods are there? Vidagadha Sakalya asked the question repeatedly.

Answer: Yajnavalkya relied successively that number of Gods are:
·        3003, 303 - As many as are mentioned in the (group of Mantras known as) Nivid of the hymn of praise addressed to the Visvedevas (Parmatma) viz. three hundred and three, three thousand and three. Many form of gods’ manifest the man's desire which all emanate from the one vital force of material desire are dealt with.
·        33 - The various powers praised in 3003 & 303 are in reality only thirty-three gods. The eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Indra and Prajapati make up the thirty-three.
o   Fire, the earth, air, the sky, the sun, heaven, the moon and the stars, these are the Vasus. Vasus or energies are said to enable the desire that manifests the forms of all that live as well as all the objects of the universe.
o   The ten organs in the human body (five gnanendriyas, and the five karmendriyas), with the mind as the eleventh. When they depart from this mortal body, they make (one's relatives) weep. Because they then make them weep, therefore they are called Rudras.
o   The twelve months (are parts) of a year; these are the Adityas. Within creation all is subject to change and transience,   this mutability we call time and mortality.   Time came into being with Creation.   The Adityas represent entropy   (energy balance)   as the twelve months that represent the time effect with mortality.
o   The cloud is Indra, and the sacrifice is Prajapati. Strength and sacrifice are the means of rites and rituals.   These are included because rites and rituals are regarded as a part of the desire for further creation, so the cause and maintenance of Creation (which is the purpose here to reveal) must be shown to encompass such ritual   (desire).
·        6 - Fire, the earth, the air, the sky, the sun and heaven these are the six.
·        3 - Three worlds, because in these all those gods are comprised.
·        2 - Matter and the vital force.
·        One and a half - The vital force   (material desire)   represented by   "The (air) that blows"   (the breath of life,   symbolizing the desire that maintains the life experience itself). It is one and a half because through its presence all this attains surpassing glory.
·        One - The vital force (Hiranyagarbha, Prana); it is Brahman, which is called that (Tyat). Vital Force   also as air or prana has been explained to be the initial energy or movement from original desire from which all of these gods,   deities   or energies followed. The vital force named in this verse as Brahman does not mean the Absolute Brahman,   The Non-Dual Self. This Brahman is the conditioned Brahman of material creation.   This Brahman is endowed with attributes by the ignorant who seek reality in Creation. Ignorance is the forgetting of our Unity with the Absolute.

2.   Vital force symbolizes the desire to Create and maintain worldly existence. Vital force,   the one cause of all the worldly gods. The material form of the body was created from this world and will again decompose back to the earth. The material universe will eventually return to rest when creation is subsumed as the Absolute Knowledge alone. Vital force symbolizes the desire to flourish through offspring. The ultimate resort of the entire body and organs is the being who is identified with lust.

3.   The abode or support or material for a vital force will naturally be the earth. The vital force itself is the very product of the mind, ego and Manas.

4.   According to yogic philosophy, the human mind been classified into four categories: buddhi (intellect), manas, ahamkara and chitta. Manas means sensory, processing mind, Chitta is for storage of impressions, Ahamkara means "I-maker" or Ego and Buddhi which      knows, decides, judges, and discriminates. It is due to being led by Manas that delusion and ignorance cause the seeing of duality as reality.   Manas needs to be supervised, not allowed to be a guiding light. The intellect led by Manas leads to delusion and ignorance.  Higher Divine Truth is seen through mind controlled by Buddhi.

5.   Within this universe, duality of justice and injustice exist. The sacrifice ritual is conducted within the realm of Dharma and righteousness through which justice is obtained. It is the priest that officiates and gives validity and authority to a sacrifice ritual and the correct remuneration of the priest completes the correct procedure. Remuneration rests on faith which is guided by mind and supported by intellect. This faith is the very belief of the ignorant in a deity vital force that supports their individual rites and desire for reward from a divinity of duality.

6.   Mind rests in Prana. Prana rests in apana (down breathing). Apana rests in Vyana (back breathing). Vyana rests in Udana (out breathing). Udana rests in Samana. These are the eight abodes (the earth, &c.), the eight worlds (fire, etc.), the eight gods (the immortal food, etc.), the eight persons (the corporeal, etc.).

7.   Water here represents the organs of the body. Vital force sustains the desire for physical manifestation. Water sustains the body;   the body is the abode of the vital force.  Who is his deity'?   'Varuna (rain). Prajapati   (the father)   represents the renewal or continuation of creation through the desire for wife, Son, wealth and fame.   

8.   Colors   symbolize the appearance of duality through the various forms of creation whose instrument of vision is the eye. Sunlight enables the seeing of colours form and duality.   That described as residing in the sun also has the status of deity or god. Sense of hearing provides information it is due to all the senses confirming the world of duality. It is the being who is identified with the ear and with the time of hearing.

9.   Distance in all the directions (The quarters) of the universe also represent deity. East direction is named seeing the sun. The sun is elevated to a deity by those seeing reality in Creation. Existence of the sun exists is supported by the sense of sight and the eye represents the proof of the sun’s existence. Eye sees different colors. Colors are in mind. South direction is associated with the deity, Yama (the god of justice).

10.        West direction is associated with the deity, Varuna (the god of rain). To support life rain becomes water and it is from water that rain is produced. Water comes with Creation. Creation arises from the seed.

11. North direction is identified with the deity, Soma (the moon and the creeper). The ritual and the priest produce soma or liquid to enable the fruits of the ritual. Soma rests on initiation and initiation rest on truth. This truth is the truth as reported by the senses. One knows truth through the mind.

12.        Fixed direction (Zenith) is identified with the deity, fire. Fire rest on speech. Speech acts of Creation by speaking the objects of desire. Speech is guided by mind as it sees duality with its needs and desires as real.


​Reference:

  1. https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/brhad_III-01.html
  2. http://www.upanishads.kenjaques.org.uk/Brihadaranyaka_Upanishad
  3. https://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads
 
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Sri Nimbarakacharya – Dvaitadvaita Philosophy

9/18/2020

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Sri Nimbarakacharya – Dvaitadvaita Philosophy
 
Sri Nimbarkacharya was born in Pandarpur in Andhra Pradesh in 12-13th century. Sri Nimbarka was devotee of Krishna and spent his time mostly in Mathura, the birth place of Krishna.  He wrote small work of ten verses known as Dasa-Sloka, giving a short exposition of his doctrine for beginners.
 
Nimbaraka expounded the philosophy of Dvaitadvaita – duality in unity. He basically adapted the doctrine of Bhedabheda of Bhaskara. According to him, Brahman has innumerable auspicious attributes but without any particular form. He transforms Himself into the world of duality and change, without losing His entity as the Absolute and unitary Being. The Jiva in his real nature is one with Brahman, but gets differentiated from Him in the state of bondage by what is called the Upadhis or adjuncts of body-mind. But in liberation, Jiva is becomes with Brahman, as a river becomes one with ocean when it enters it.  According to Bhaskara, by performance of the duties imposed on one by the Vedas without any desire for their duties imposed on the practice of meditation on Brahman and the Jiva’s oneness with Him, the Jiva will be able, by the strength of his aspiration for freedom, to release him from the bondage imposed by Upadhis. Bhaskara’s system does not preach devotion to any form of the Deity, nor does it affiliate itself with any personalistic cult.
 
Nimbarka’s Dvaitadvaita philosophy is as under:
Brahman is only independent entity. He is known by several names as Parmatman, Bhagavan, Isvara, Rama, Krishna and Purushottama. He is free from the five kinds of imperfections (Klesas) viz. ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred and fear of death. He is omniscient, omnipotent and His will is always accomplished (Satya-sankalpa). He is free from law of karma. He is Nirguna (without three gunas of Prakriti – Sattva, Rajas & Tamas). He possesses the six unique qualities – Jnana (knowledge to perceive everything), Shakti (Power to make everything), Bala (Strength to support world), Aishvarya (Sovereignty), Virya (tireless energy) and Tejas (Prowess to suppress opposing forces).
  1. Brahman is both the material and efficient cause of the world. (Differ from Samkhyas - The unconscious Prakriti of the Samkhyas is not the material cause of the world.) 
  2. Brahman is the only ultimate existence, but He manifests Himself as manifold world of becoming consisting of Jivas and Jagat. They exist in Him and are sustained by His Prabhava (unique power).
  3. Brahman is non-different from Jivas and Jagat because they depend on Him for the very existence. But Brahman is different from them as He is self-dependent and possesses the unique qualities of omniscience, omnipotence and the like, which latter do possess.
  4. Jivas and Jagat have dependent existence. The Jivas are conscious entity. Kala (time), Prakriti (Primordial Nature) and Aprakrta (Suddha-sattva stuff) are non-conscious entities.
  5. Jivas and Jagat are His projections and cannot exist apart from Him. (Similar to Ramanuja’s Aprthak-siddhi or inseparable and non-reciprocal dependence).
  6. Jivas and Jagat are both different and non-different from Brahman. Hence the system is Dvaitadvaita. (Differ from Visishtadvaita of Ramanuja – Jivas are an attribute i.e. Visesana, of God. Nambarka describes that calling an attribute, differentiates its possessor from something else. Further, calling Jivas & Jagat as substances is wrong. If Jivas and Jagat are the attributes of God, the attribute of imperfect and sinful Jagat and the Jivas, would be contradictory in a perfect God.)
  7. The Jiva is neither born, nor dies and is eternal & self-conscious as ‘I’. Jiva is different from Isvara since he is created, dependent and controlled by Him. Since Jiva shares His nature, also non-different from Him. He is free agent, but freedom is subject to the will of the Isvara. He pervades the whole body and derives experience through it. He is the doer of good and bad deeds and he experiences the three kinds of pain based on past karmsa or deeds. Isvara impels him to do actions or abstain from them according to the tendencies and merits and demerits acquired by the Jiva by his past deeds. Avidya (nescience, ignorance), the loads of karma, conjoined Jiva with the body-mind provided by the prakriti. Due to Avidya, the Jivas are bound to Samsara or cycle of births & deaths. When ignorance is liquidated by the grace of God, Jiva regains his nature as the spiritual ‘I’. There is jivan-Mukti or liberation while living. Mukti is attained only after the Parabdha Karma is exhausted on the death of the present body. Liberated Jiva realizes that the “non-difference in difference” with the Paramattman.
  8. Four types of liberation are recognized.
    1. Samipya – Proximity with God.
    2. Sarupya – Similarity of form with Him.
    3. Salokya – Residence in His abode.
    4. Sayujya – Mergence in Him as His part without losing one’s individual nature.
10. There is no liberation in the embodied state as I Shankara.
 
Reference: Bhakti Schools of Vedanta – by Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.
 

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Philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya – the Dvaita

9/4/2020

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Philosophy of Sri Madhvacharya – the Dvaita
 
Sri Madhvacharya, who lived during 1238-1317 in Karnataka, propounded the philosophy of Realism, the Doctrine of the Two i.e. Dvaita. It accepts two entirely separate substances, the independent reality (God) and the Dependent reality (the Jivas, Nature and other allied categories). Consciousness is always bi-polar. There must be a knower (Jnata) at one end, and an object (Jneya) at other end. The Dvaita is further elaborated through fivefold difference viz. Jiva and Jiva; Isvara and Jiva; Isvara and Jada or inanimate substance; Jiva and Jada: Jada and Jada.
 
The highlights of the philosophy are as under:
 Dvaita doctrine of Madhva has recognized ten ultimate categories as under:
  1. Substance (Dravya) – It is the material cause of evolutionary transformation in the case of some entities like Prakriti and of emanation in others like Brahman and Jiva.
    1. God (Brahman or Vishnu) - Only Independent Substance possessing infinite auspicious attributes and having absolute control over the Dependent category, into which all other substances are grouped. The perceptive awareness of Jiva (Saksi) is selective and segmented. Only the Independent Being, known as Brahman, Vishnu, Narayana etc. and the first and foremost of His dependents, Sri or Lakshmi, regarded as His consort, can have that exhaustive and all comprehending awareness of all Dependent Beings which include all Jivas and unconscious objects (Prakriti). It is His awareness that is eternally supporting everything.
    2. Lakshmi – Though dependent absolutely, she has no bondage and its coeval with the independent Vishnu and is therefore called Samana (equal). Like Vishnu, she is all pervading and no material form, but can manifest in infinite forms. Vishnu has given her the place of His consort and bestowed on her cosmic powers.
    3. Souls (Jivas) – Among dependent entities, Jivas are centers of intelligence – conscious (Chetna) substance. 
    4. Avyakrtakasa – It is unmodified eternal space which enables the perception of directions (Dik) – east, west, up, down, etc. It is different from physical space (Bhutakasa), one of the five elements of Prakriti.
    5. Nature (Prakriti) – It is the insentient (Jada) stuff, the material cause out of which all creation (all objects of universe including the psycho-physical organism) proceeds at the will of Vishnu.
    6. The three Gunas – These are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas which the Vishnu projects out of Prakriti by His desire to create. From the combination of these Gunas, all the fourteen categories of creation (Mahat etc.) came into existence.
  2. Attributes – These do not stand by themselves like substances, but depend on substances. Their number is countless and includes physical, mental and spiritual attributes, but exclude all the bad qualities.
  3. Action (Karma) - It is neither a substance nor an attribute, but subsists in substance. These actions are meritorious (Punya) and sinful (Papa), and are responsible for the pleasing and painful experience of Jiva.
  4. Universal (Samanya) – The class grouping of a large number of similar entities based on the property of resemblance, is universal.
  5. Difference (Visesa) – Substances have self-linking capacity with attributes. Based on the attributes, substances are distinguished. Difference is an invariable attribute of substances forming its very nature.
  6. Qualified (Visista) – The subtraction or addition of any Visesana will produce a new Visista (Qualified whole).
  7. Fraction (Amsi) – The incarnation of God are called Svarup-amsa or a fraction of potency. The Jiva is called a Bhinn-amsa or potency in separation.
  8. Power (Shakti) – Power or capacity is four types
  9. Brahman’s capacity is beyond comprehension of human beings;
  10. Induced capacity in consecrated images;
  11. The supersensory power of talent in causes to produce effects;
  12. The power of words to convey meanings.
    1. Resemblance (Sadrsya) – the resemblance is recognized as separate category.
    2. Negation (Abhava) – There are four kinds of Negation:
  13. Pragabhava – the perception of the non-existence of a pot before it is made.
  14. Pradhvamsabhava – the perception of absence of a thing after it is destroyed.
  15. Anyonyabhava – Reciprocal negation e.g. table is not chair.
  16. Atyantabhava – it is absolute non-existence like a barren women’s son or the horn of a hare.
 
Supreme Being (Brahman):
  1. Vishnu - Vedas, the revealed scriptures have fully confirmed and established the concept of God. Furthermore, Vedas have established the functions, nature attributes and His place in human’s life. Madhvacharya identified Him on Vedic authority with Vishnu known also by several other names like Narayana, Isvara, Bhagavan, Purusottama, Krishna etc.
  2. Saguna - He has no particular material form but can manifest in any form, being a center of all force, power, will, auspiciousness, goodness, beauty, grace, responsiveness etc. He is far better described by a term like Saguna (Person with a character, responsiveness and full of auspicious attributes) than by Nirguna (an impersonal, amoral and irresponsive) being). He stoutly maintained that He is a being with character (Saguna), and is in that sense personality. He described as Nirguna and Nirvisesa, it means only that nothing about Him is a product of Gunas, or constituents of Prakriti (material nature), and that His form, qualities, powers etc. are not of a material character as known to us. They are transcendental and spiritual.
  3. Sat-Chit-Ananda and Ananta - Veda describe Him as Sat-Chit-Ananda and Ananta, it means that these are His essence and being. He is both knowledge and knower, Bliss and Blissful. He has no physical body of matter. The substance of His being is Chaitanya and Ananda (Consciousness and Bliss). They are His attributes too. Supreme and Independent Being is very credible.  He is Satyam (Truth), Jnanam (Knowledge), and Anandam (Bliss) in an infinite degree (Anantam).
  4. Independent - Brahman, the Independent Being, and Jivas, Prakriti and other eternal and non-eternal entities are dependent beings.
  5. Omnipotent and omniscient - He is omnipotent and omniscient and all-pervading. He resides in everything and directs them, He is unaffected and unsullied, and He is Amala or one without any impurity.
  6. He is more significant to the Jivas as the one who distributes to him welfare and suffering according to the efficiencies of his karmas.
  7. Acintya-sakti - His inconceivable power (Acintya-sakti) known as Maya functions in two ways. It performs all the cosmic activities of creation, sustentation, and dissolution. It also covers up the spiritual nature of Jivas and involves them in Samsara.
  8. Redeemer - His grace on Jivas and lifts him from Samsara. He is thus Redeemer who sheds His grace on the devotee. Grace is thus one of His most important attributes, making Him very significant to the Jiva. He alone can break the bonds of karma and deliver the Jiva from Samsara, because even bondage has been imposed by Him on the Jivas.
  9. Creator- Creatorship of Brahman implies that He is the master of the eight cosmic processes – creation, sustentation, dissolution, control, enlightenment, obscuration, bondage and release.
  10. Perfect - God is the quintessence of all perfection and is free from all imperfections.
  11. Contrary attributes - Many contrary attributes also can simultaneously manifest in Him. For example, His anger towards Hiranyakasipu manifests simultaneously with His gracious love for his devotee son Prahlada. His contradictory characteristics like minuteness and enormity, lightness and heaviness, to be known and to be unknown, can all co-exist in him without contradiction. So it is said in Upanishads; ‘Anor aniyan mahato mahiyan, Amasya janto nihito guhayam’ – smaller than an atom and bigger than biggest, the Atman resides in the cavity of the heart of beings.
 
Jiva (Individual soul):
  1. Jiva is defined as center of I-sense which is endowed with consciousness and will - the powers to know, to act and to enjoy. It is intuited by the Saksi (witness) as distinct from the body and mind. It is multiplicity with individuals having distinct features which are never repeated. For numerical multiplicity without qualitative multiplicity is no multiplicity at all.
  2. Every Jiva is in essence a distinct being with limited consciousness and bliss but the measure of these in each one of them varies. As a consequence there is a hierarchy of Jivas, each with its own uniqueness which holds good both in bondage and liberation. This is an important point on which Madhva’s realistic doctrine differs sharply from that of Ramanuja. In the latter’s system, except in respect of the Nitya-Vibhutis (the eternal companions of the God), all Jivas are, in their essence, a uniform type of conscious monads.
  3. The Atman is self-luminous. In the Advaita the self-luminosity of the Atman means that it is a subject-objectless entity – Pure Consciousness. Without being a subject that is a knower and an object that is known. Madhva rejects such a concept, as an entity without a subjective or objective reference will only be a non-luminous one. The Atman is self-luminous as it is knower with an inherent capacity to know itself as well as others. But this capacity, though inherent in it, is derived from the only Independent Being, the Para-Brahman. Being a Reflection (Pratibimba) of God, the Jiva gets a very coloring of some of His attributes like self-luminosity and bliss.
  4. Jivas are free to work according to their innate nature and their accumulated karma, good and bad.
  5. Jivas are countless, and both in bondage and liberation each Jiva keeps up his     difference from others both in individually and character (Svarupa-bheda). In most of other systems of Vedanta, it is not so. Ramanuja admits plurality of souls in both bondage and liberation but denies qualitative difference in the state of release. Due to uniqueness of each Jiva, their gradation and classification into three groups logically follows. According to madhva, in liberation also this variation exists. But in Ramanuja’s system, the Jiva in liberation attains to equality with Brahman in knowledge and bliss, but not in power, as Brahman alone has the power of creation. Madhva rejects such a theory on the ground that variations in Jivas in bondage remain unexplained under this theory. An initial intrinsic difference alone can account for variations in bondage and this must of necessity be extended to the state of liberation too. This difference consists in the basic potencies inherent in their very being.
 
Prakriti:
Prakriti is dependent on Brahman. (As against, Samkhya’s philosophy that Prakriti is absolutely independent entity and philosophy of Advaita that world is only provisional reality which is sublated when the Truth is realized.).
 
Space and Time:
Both unmodified space and Time are not perceived through any of the sense organs by the Saksi (witness), the intuitive power of the Atman, directly. In deep sleep when all the senses and mind are absolutely at abeyance, the saksi intuits bare ego, bare time and bare bliss. As no sense experience is there, it cannot be an ordinary perception and for that reason, not an inference. The evidence of Saksi alone certifies it. Both time and space are infinite but also infinitely divisible.
  1. Space contains everything and makes movement possible. According to Madhvacharya, there are two kinds of Akasha (Space) – the Avyakritakasa (uncreated eternal and unmodified space), and Akasa forming one of the five elements evolved out of Prakriti. Avakritakasa are coeval with Brahman like Prakriti and the Jiva.
  2. Time conditions and regulates the generating growth and dissolution of everything.
 
Avidya or Ignorance:
The sense of an independent self-centered existence is called Avidya, the Svarupajnana (the ignorance of one’s nature). It is the basic cause of the Jiva’s involvement in the miseries of Samsara consisting in repeated births and deaths. The locus of Avidya is said to in Jiva.
Reference: Bhakti Schools of Vedanta – by Swami Tapasyananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.

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