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GEORGE BURCH
Visishtadvaita, and asserts the claim of Vaishnavism to be a world religion.
The wide span of the book reflects the vast scope of the philosophy it describes. Morality, metaphysics, and mysticism are all harmonized in the love of God and in our love for him. The actual experience of a Vaishnava mystic may be the same as that of a Christian mystic, but the former, possessing the richer resources of Hindu theology, psychology, and mythology, can give it a fuller expression. Visishtadvaita should attract those who are repelled by the austere intellectuality and alleged amorality of Advaita. The fine style of this book makes it an excellent introduction to the subject.
Professor Srinivasachari's other book" is shorter and rather different. The former work is a loving account of the philosophy in which he believes. This one is an attempt, a very successful one, to give a fair, sympathetic, and scholarly account of a philosophy in which he does not believe.
Dvaitadvaita (literally, "dualistic non-dualism") is also called Bhedabheda (literally, "distinctive non-distinction," that is, unity in difference). Scholars may distinguish between Dvaitadvaita and Bhedabheda, but the distinction is a subtle one, and the two terms are substantially synonymous. Srinivasachari uses the word "Bhedabheda," and he describes this philosophy through the doctrine of its most eminent advocate, the ninth-century philosopher Bhaskara. Both chronologically and philosophically Bhaskara is intermediate between Shankara, the great teacher of Advaita, and Ramanuja, the great teacher of Visishtadvaita.
The basic doctrine of this school is that reality is both one and many, so that the monistic and pluralistic ways of apprehending it are equally valid and mutually complementary. The basic principles of Shankara's Advaita are that the absolute is without qualities, that the world is an illusory appearance, that salvation is attained by knowledge, and that such knowledge is possible in this life (nirguna Brahman, vivartavada, jnana, jivanmukti). The basic principles of Ramanuja's Visishtadvaita are that the absolute has qualities, phenomena pre-exist in their causes, salvation
14 P. N. Srinivasachari, The Philosophy of Bhedābheda, 2nd ed. (Madras, 1950)