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198 Philosophy of the Rāmānuja School of Thought [CH. the cause there is nothing in the effect which can be expressed or described (upādāna-vyatirekeņa kāryasya anirūpaņād advitīyatā)”. Thus, in all these various ways in which Sankara's philosophy has been interpreted, it has been universally held by almost all the followers of Sankara that, though Brahman was at bottom the ground-cause yet the stuff of the world was not of real Brahman material, but of māyā; and, though all the diversity of the world has a relative existence, it has no reality in the true sense of the term in which Brahman is reala. Sankara himself says that the omniscience of Brahman consists in its eternal power of universal illumination or manifestation (yasya hi sarva-visayāvabhāsana-kşamam jñānam nityam asti). Though there is no action or agency involved in this universal consciousness, it is spoken of as being a knowing agent, just as the sun is spoken of as burning and illuminating, though the sun itself is nothing but an identity of heat and light (pratatausnyaprakāsepi savitari dahati prakāsayatīti svātantrya-vyapadeśadarśanāt ... evam asaty api jñāna-karmaņi Brahmanas tad aikșata iti kartặtva-vyapadeśa-darśanāt). Before the creation of the world what becomes the object of this universal consciousness is the indefinable name and form which cannot be ascertained as “this" or "that”3. The omniscience of Brahman is therefore this universal manifestation, by which all the creations of māyā become the knowable contents of thought. But this manifestation is not an act of knowledge, but a permanent steady light of consciousness by which the unreal appearance of māyā flash into being and are made known.
Rāmānuja's view is altogether different. He discards the view of Sankara, that the cause alone is true and that all effects are false.
1 Pañca-pădikā-vivarana, p. 221.
2 Prakāśātman refers to several ways in which the relation of Brahman and māyā has been conceived, e.g. Brahman has māyā as His power, and the individual souls are all associated with avidyā; Brahman as reflected in māyā and avidyā is the cause of the world(māyā-vidyā-pratibimbitam brahma jagat-karanam); pure Brahman is immortal, and individual souls are associated with avidyā; individual souls have their own illusions of the world, and these through similarity appear to be one permanent world: Brahman undergoes an apparent transformation through His own avidyā. But in none of these views is the world regarded as a real emanation from Brahman. Panca-pădikā-vivaruna, p. 232.
Regarding the question as to how Brahman could be the cause of beginningless Vedas, Prakaśātman explains it by supposing that Brahman was the underlying reality by which all the Vedas imposed on it were manifested. Ibid. pp. 203, 231.
Skim punas tat-karma? yat prāg-utpatter fśvara-jñānasya visayo bhavatiti. tattvānyatvābhyām anirvacaniye nāma-rüpe avyākste vyācikirşite iti brümaḥ. Sankara-bhāşya, I. I. 5.
