ADVAITA
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THE FINAL VERDICT
Advaita is not an argument. It is not a point of view. It is the final judgement. Each may present their arguments in a court of Law. The judge in the end passes judgement. There end all arguments. Call it samkhya call it yoga, nyaya, Vaiseshika, purva mimamsa or uttara mimamsa. And you may add to these the proud findings of the latest scientific researches. All these are pursuits of knowledge in their ways, and according to their beliefs and points of view. Their results remain mere views and arguments. They do not represent the culmination. Advaita is that culmination. It is the ultimate statement. And there can be nothing beyond the ultimate. It can be proclaimed as loudly as one can that there never was and never will be any other statement with such finality.
How can you make such an assertion? The answer is in the term advaita itself. Advaita is non-dualism and does not admit a second entity. The creation does confront you with a multiplicity of objects. But this multiplicity dissolves in discrimination and perspicuous perception. All these seeming many are in reality not so many, but just one. And that one is one’s own self. That is what the term advaita (non-dual) means. What is not dual is advaita. What is duality? Whatever appears as the other and as different from one another is duality. Sankara branded every system of philosophy – from samkhya to purva and uttara mimamsa – as dual. Any count beyond one is dualism.
SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY
Kapila who propounded samkhya posits two principles – Prakriti and Purusha. Moreover, Prakriti is not one. Its constituents are three – sattwa, rajas and tamas. It transforms itself into mahat (the vast) and the ahamkara (ego). Purusha is also not one. Purusha is the jiva, the individual self. And the selves are millions and billions. Prakriti and Purusha are unrelated. And no two selves are related. Each is constituted in its own way. Patanjali, the propounder of Yoga, while admitting Prakriti and Purusha, adds a third, namely Iswara or God. And so, Kapila’s system is called atheistic samkhya while Patanjali’s Yoga is called theistic samkhya. And there are the originators of the systems of nyaya and Vaiseshika. The former is propounded by Gautama and the latter by Kanada. Both are referred to as logicians. Those of the Nyaya school posit sixteen substances, while those who profess Vaiseshika posit seven. And now, there are the followers of sage Jaimini. They are referred to as Karma (ritual) mimamsakas. They believe in nothing other than the daily obligatory rituals and the rituals that are to be performed on special occasions. What is prescribed and what is proscribed is, for them, decided by the Veda and nothing else. Performance of the prescribed rituals for the attainment of heavenly pleasures and a better life and welfare in the coming births is their life’s one goal. Nothing else bothers them. They don’t even admit God. The word of the Veda is all. These are as godless as are the samkhyas. Both in a sense are atheists.
imamsakas. There are of two different schools – the dualists and the specialized non-dualists. Both accept the authority of the Veda, along with God who is to be known through the Veda. The dualists conceive of God in the forms of Vishnu as well as of Siva, who comes next. The specialized non-dualists admit only Vishnu and deny entry to Siva. Both these schools have existed since the time of the Vedas. Duality is referred to as the school of differentiation, whereas the specialised non-duality is referred to as ‘the differentiation not – differentiation’ school. In later times Ramanuja propagated the specialised non-duality, while Madhava propagated duality. The specialised non-dualists admit three entities, namely, jiva (the individual self) jagat (the world), and Iswara (God). They call these tattwa traya (the triad). In their technical terminology, Iswara is referred to as seshi (what remains after deduction), and jiva and jagat as sesha, the remainder. The dualists, whose very foundation is differentiation, have further divided these three into five. All the five are true for them. The five are – difference between one self and the other self, difference between the self and the world, difference between different entities of the world, difference between the world and self and difference between self and God.
And then, the Buddhists, the jains, and the Charvakas and their followers. These are all atheists, Buddhists propose rupa (form), vijnana (consciousness) and the five skandhas. The Jains propose seven entities, living and non living. For the nuterialists like Charvakas and their fellows, the individual selves, the world, with all their pleasures and pains exist. They admit birth and death. But they deny the self, God, other worlds, and rebirths. That is all for them.
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