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The Views Regarding God and the Doctrine of Brahman
And out of this conflict of ideas a sort of dualism-cum-nondualism too was likewise coming into existence in various forms. At that very time when there was a predominance of the nondualist ideas like sadadvaita (nondualism in respect of existence), dravyādvaita (=nondualism in respect of substance); guņadvaita (=nondualism in respect of quality), Brahmadvaita (=nondualism in respect of Brahman), Vijñānadvaita (enondualism in respect of consciousness), sabdadvaita (=nondualism in respect of word) etc. there, in there midst gained entry in a powerful fashion Sankara's doctrine of Keyaladvaita (=absolute Dondualism). This also produced reaction on the dualist and dualist-cum-nondualist thinkers. As a consequence, they began to oppose in their respective manners the doctrine of absolute non-dualism based on the concspt of māyā. Thus in the very mander of Bhaskara, a host of other powerful and very powerful masters become determined to prove that the doctrine of absolute nondualism is irrational and unauthoritative. They also included such masters as followed Upanişads. As for those like the Sankhya and Madhva they based their opposition on pure dualism; but those like Rāmānuja etc., even while basing themselves on nondualism, established an altogether different type of nondualism and began to oppose Sankara's absolute nondualism in a powerful fashion. Among such non-dualists there have been masters following the Sankhya-Yoga, Vaisnava and Saiva traditions. Thus masters like Rāmānuja, Nimbārka, Vallabha and Caitanya, even if they established Brahmädvaita (=nondualism in respect of Brahman), through basing themselves on the Vaişņava tradition in their respectives manners, in fact while doing so only lent support to the doctrine of differencecum-ncndifference and dualism-cum-nondualism. For the same type of real unity-cum-multiplicity or difference-cum-nondifference which Bhāskara has established in respect of the element Brabman or God was discussed and established by these Vaisnava. Saiva/add/other masters in slightly different forms and in great details. On the other hand, masters like Vijñānabhiksu too established Brahmädvaita but while doing so they simply couched the Sankhya-Yoga idea in the terminology of nondualism; similarly, masters like Śrikantha, basing themselves on the Saiva tradition, interpreted the element Brahman in the form of Śiva and also established nondualism in their own manner. Thus even while basing themselves on Upanişads and Brah. masutra so many masters belonging to so many traditions opposed to sankara's absolute nondualism wrote commentaries on Brahmsutra. Each of these masters establishes the element Brahman spoken of under the different names like God, Supreme God, Nārāyana, Vişnu, Krsna, Siva etc, in the form of something eternal-undergoing-no-change, and yet conceives a real origination of the conscious-cum-nonconscious world out of this very element God.
Masters like Rāmānuja are of the view that the supreme Brahman or Nārāyana, besides being one present everywhere and one controlling all the
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