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VISISTĀDVAITA
399 substance and attribute and may be found between one substance and another. It may be described as the pivot on which his whole philosophy turns. It is parallel to, but not identical with, the Nyāya-Vaiseșika samavāya. The two agree in so far as the relata which they bring together are regarded as quite distinct and real; but while samavāya (p. 235) is an external relation, the conception of aprthaksiddhi is that of an internal one. The example given in illustration of it, viz. the relation between body and soul, brings out clearly its intimate character. The body is defined by Ramānuja as that which a soul controls, supports and utilizes for its own ends. Matter and souls, being the body of God, are to be regarded as directed and sustained by him and as existing entirely for him. The inseparable unity of matter, souls and God-the first two being entirely subject to the restraint of the third in all their forms-is the Brahman or Absolute of Rāmānuja. Since Rāmānuja identifies the relation here involved with that between the body and the soul, his conception of the Absolute may be described as that of an organic unity in which, as in a living organism, one element predominates over and controls the rest. The subordinate elements are termed visesanas and the predominant one, višesya. Because the višeşanas cannot by hypothesis exist by themselves separately, the complex whole (visista) in which they are included is described as a unity. Hence the name 'Višiştādvaita.
This conception of unity may be illustrated by taking a common example like a 'blue lotus.' Here the blueness is quite distinct from the lotus, for a quality cannot be the same as a substance. But at the same time the blueness as a quality depends for its very being upon a substance-the lotus here, and cannot therefore be regarded as external to it. The complex whole of the flower in question is, in this sense of necessarily including within itself the quality of blueness, spoken of as a unity. It will help us to understand this view well if we contrast it with those of some other + SB. II. i. 9. This intimacy of relation is expressed thus-niyamena adheyatvam, niyamena vidheyatvam, niyamena seşatvam. * Cf. SB. p. 132 (com.): Višiştāntarbhāva eva aikyam.
