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THE BRAHMANICAL DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION
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According to Rāmānuja this world cannot be unreal as it is a part of brahman or God. Similarly individual selves (ātmans) are real and eternal like brahman and are part of brahman :
"the individual self is a part of the highest self; as the light issuing from a luminous thing such as fire or the sun is a part of that body."86 There are three kinds of souls according to Rāmānuja.
Eternally free (nitya-mukta): those souls which are ever free and they reside in Vaikuntha. They are totally free from karma and rebirth. They are full of bliss and enjoy perfect peace and freedom. Released or freed (mukta) : those souls that were previously bound, but have obtained freedom through the triple training of good action, right knowledge, and pure devotion.
Bound (baddha) : those who are encircled in the world and are suffering on account of ignorance, wrong thought, and evil deeds.
Further the bound (baddha) souls are subdivided into four classes :
(i) divine or super human beings, (ii) human beings, (iii) animal world, and (iv) immobile souls.**
The released (mukta) souls do not have any qualitative distinctions. All of them enjoy peace, knowledge and bliss with brahman. Rāmānuja advocates qualitative monism and quantitative pluralism of souls. The relation between the individual souls and brahmun is that of body and soul. It is a peculiar non-dual relation which Rāmānuja calls visiştādvaita. It is the unique relation of inner connection and dependence of the souls on God. C.D. Sharma explains the meaning of viśişțădvaita as “identity-in-and-through-and-because-ofdifference or identity-as-qualified-by-difference."87 Rāmānuja did not believe in the conception of bhedābheda (identity-cum-difference) and advocated the view of visistadvaita.
According to Rāmānuja, the Upanişadic text tat tvam asi does not convey the idea of complete unity between brahman and ātman but the words tat and tvam denote the brahman distinguished by difference. He says that if the text “thou art that” were meant to express absolute
86. Rāmānuja on The Vedāntasūtra, 11. 11.45; see also A Source Book in Indian
Philosophy, p. 555. 87. C.D. Sharma, A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, p. 355,
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