The beauty of visistadvaita lies in its conception of a Godhead of attributes or gunas, whose playground is the entire universe from whom all the animate and inanimate emanate and in whom all merge ultimately. This goes as a compromise between absolute monism of Adi sankara and the distinctive separation of deva and jiva of anandatirtha the famous madhavacharya.
Another important aspect is that if sankara advaita preaches salvation through discard of vices and worldly aspects and realization of the Godhead through introspection. The visistadvaita accepts the social obligation of Jiva as Dehin and teaches the way to be away from the phenomenal world but to live within it, by surrendering the fruits of action at the feet of that supreme bliss manifested in the form of SRIMAN NARAYANA.
The fundamental doctrines of the Visistadvaita philosophy as declared by all the Upanishads is …
1. Narayana the consort of Sri is our Lord, who has all beings and things as His body.
2. He gives Moksha or release from bondage.
3. He is the object of blissful enjoyment for those who have attained moksha.
Sri Nathamuni is regarded as the first acharya of the visistadvaita philosophy. As per the instructions of Nathamuni, Sri manakkal Nambi, his grand disciple imparted spiritual knowledge and instructions to sri Yamuna who then became an ascetic and set about preaching the philosophy of visistadvaita where ever he went.
Sri Yamuna has composed eight works. These works in essence explain that
1. Sriman Narayana is the supreme being.
2. He possesses a divine form and innumerable auspicious qualities.
3. The agamas should be regarded equal to the Vedas.
4. Sri the consort of Sriman Narayana is eternally associated with Him equally powerful and together with Her Lord protects the universe.
By the time Sri nathamuni came the pasurams of the Azhwars had all been forgotten and almost lost to the world. He had unearthed a couple of decads and had organized them. Sri Nathamuni set the Divya prabhandha to the devangani style of music. He emphasized that a recital of the pasurams was as important to a vaishnava mumukshu as a study of the Vedas.
Two disciples of Sri nathamuni sri Uyyakondar and Sri Manakkal nimbi carried on the tradition of their acarya when they were managing the affairs of the temple. They succeeded in bringing Sri Alavandar into their fold and made him the devotee of sri Ranganatha. Sri Alavandar was instrumental in bringing Sri Ramanuja from Kanchipuram to Sri Rangam. There are so many stories and instances connected with Sri Ramanujas life. He was the first to explain the philosophy and visistadvaita is the name given to the philosophy of Sri ramanuja. It means Visistasya advaita or oneness, uniqueness or non duality of the supreme Lord. Here the qualification is the body the sarira. The entire universe consisting of living beings (cit) and inanimate (acit) is the body which qualifies lord Vishnu. He is visista also advaita hence the name Visistadvaita meaning qualified non dualism.
The Vedas are a compendium of all information regarding nature, God, practices and percepts. But the peculiarity of the Vedas is that all information are not found in one place. As a result the interpretations of the vedic statements by different saints and scholars has not been uniform, leading to conflict and different meaning. The advaita school of thought as represented by Sri Sankara gives prominence to abheda srutis or oneness of the Jiva or Jivatman with paramatman.
The dvaita school as systematized by Sri Madhava, gives importance to Bheda sruthi or statements indicating that the jivatma and paramatman are totally different and can never be the same. Sri ramanuja sought to establish a common ground between these two extreme views by using ghataka sruti and to bring out cohesiveness of the various statements. Just as the body and the soul act as one and are in unison, though they are totally different. The body being the vehicle of the soul. Even so the soul (jiva) itself is the vehicle of paramatman who abides in the soul and pervades it within and without. Just as the body is subordinate to the Jiva (soul) the Jiva is subordinate to the supreme paramatman. All the three Jiva, sarira (body) and Isvara are thus inseperable. There are three pramanas (valid means of knowledge) accepted in the visistadvaita philosophy. They are Pratyaksa (perception) anumana (inference) and sabda (verbal testimony)
Pratyaksa or perceptual knowledge is got through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell taste and touch, besides the mind. Anumana or inference is the means of knowledge based on previous perceptions like fire is inferred to exist even without seeing it, when we see the smoke emanating from it. The third instrument of valid knowledge is sabda which means verbal testimony. Gained from trustworthy utterances. Sabda pramana comprises pf Srutis, smritis of Parasara, manu Yagnyavalkya, narada etc., ithihasas Ramayana, mahabaratha and Puranas Vishnu, varaha, bhagvata and the like. The divya prabhandham of the alwars, the agamas pancaratra and vaikhanasa teach the method of worshiping the Lord in iconic form (arcavatara) installed in temples and shrines.
A Vaisnava is one who believes that Lord Vishnu is the supreme Lord of the universe and that He the Iswara dwells within the Jiva (cit) and totally pervades matter (acit) and is the protector supporter and creator of the entire universe. Visistadvaita philosophy holds that bhakti yoga and prapathi or saranagati total surrender are the two methods of attaining salvation. i.e. liberation from the cycle of births and deaths. Bhakti yoga is developed through the twin disciplines of Karma yoga and jnana yoga. A person who wants to adopt Bhakti yoga to attain moksha should first of all do his duties without any attachment to the fruits thereof (karma yoga) develop real knowledge about the soul being different from the body.(janana yoga) and then immerse himself in unalloyed love and service to the supreme Brahman. Sri Ramanuja says Bhakti yoga involves training ones mind and intellect towards pure, continuous unalloyed love of god. Constant contemplation is the very essence of bhakti. Bhakti can be cultivated through seven steps called sadhana saptaka. Viveka, Vimoka, Abhyasa, Kriya, Kalyana, anavasada, and anuddharsa.
In comparison saranagati or prapathi or whole hearted surrender is by far easier and can be adopted by one and all without any distinction of caste creed or sex. It can be adopted at any time and at any place. Saranagathi is only a kind of mental attitude towards God. A wise man offers the soul to god by deciding that God alone is responsible of protecting him. One has to resolve to do acts favourable to god, avoidance of acts that are not to Gods liking. Firm unshaken faith that God alone will save and request the god for protection, thus the soul reaches god. We thus confer that the whole universe is the playground of the godhead. SRIMAN NARAYANA. And he controls shristi and stabalises sthithi and runs samsara. He is also the one who grants salvation. Every thing is his will. This whole thing is maya and so continuous cycle of creating maintaining and granting moksha takes place by the will of the God. The supreme Sriman narayana.
We hence have to do deeds to please him. We have to wait patiently for our time to come.
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