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MAY 2014
PRABUDDH JEEVAN
THE GLORIOUS DARSANAS
BY: ATISUKHSHANKAR TRIVEDI
CHAPTER- VI: VEDANTA
The Vedanta Sutra: The Purva Mimānsă of Jaimini expounds the duties enjoined by the Vedas. As supplementary or on a view different from this, the Uttara Mimänsä describes the philosophical and theological view of the Upanisads. This work of systematisation is done by Bādarayana in the Vedanta Sūtra or the Brahma Sutras, which constitute 555 Sūtras in all, which in a compact form the Vedanta Philosophy is developed.
These Sūtras bear different interpretations with different interpreters. Chief among the commentators of the Sutras are Sankara, Bhaskara, Yadavprakāśa, Rāmānuja, Kesava, Nilakantha, Madhva, Baladeva, Vallabha and Vijnanabhikṣu.
Bādarāyaṇa is by Indian tradition identified with Vyasa. But opinions differ. The Sūtra was composed, probably, in the period between 500-200 B.C. According to Maxmuller, the Vedanta Sūtra was earlier in date than the Mahabharata. Keith is of opinion that Bādarāyaṇa cannot be later than 200 A.D.
The Vedanta Sūtra has 4 chapters. Chapter I reconciles the different Vedic statements about the Brahman (4). Chapter II meets the objections against the theory of the Brahman as the Real and criticises rival doctorines (f). Chapter III deals with the ways and means of attaining Brahmavidya (H). Chapter IV deals with the fruits of this knowledge (th).
Philosophy of the Vedanta Sūtra : According to Bādarāyaṇa the final authority is the Veda; Tarka is not the means for ascertaining truth. There were two sources of knowledge, Śruti and Smrti, which are Pratyakşam or Perception (Direct Knowledge) and Anumānam or Inference. The Śruti is selfevident and includes the Upanisads, and the Smrti includes the Bhagvadgita, the Mahabharata, and the Manusmrti. Reasoning is valid only to the extent to which it is in conformity with the Veda.
According to the Vedanta Sutras there is only one Reality as set forth in the Upanisads, the Brahman. The Puruşa and the Prakṛti are not independent substances but only modifications of a single Reality, which is the Origin, Support and End of the Universe. Brahman is not the same as the unintelligent Pradhana or the individual soul. He has purity, truth, omniscience, omnipo
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tence, etc. and cosmically he is the golden person in the gun, the cosmic light, the cosmic space, and the cosmic breath or prāna.
Brahman is the material and the instrumental cause of the Univese. The Sūtra brings out the identity of cause and effect. Cause and effect are the same like the cloth rolled up and the cloth spread out, or the man with the breath held up and again with the breath let loose. Brahman and the world are not different : like unto the clay pot.
Brahman develops itself into the world without undergoing change; it does this for its own sports. Badarāyaṇa does not explain this as, later on, Rāmānuja does by saying that even the impossible might be accomplished by the Brahman. For Sankara the explanation is that the Brahman does not change, it is we who believe that the one transforms itself into the many.
The world is the result of the will of God, created as his play (Lila). The differences in life are the results of differences in Karma. There is a moral order in the world, which is determined by the karmas; and Brahman is neither pitiless nor partial.
The three upper classes have the right to perform sacrifices; but even Sudras and women attain salvation through the grace of God.
The ultimate goal is the attainment of the Self. Knowledge of Brahman puts an end to the operation of Karmas, and Jivanmuktatā or liberation in life is possible.
The Bādarāyaṇa Sūtras are vague and indecisive, but they are monistic in essence.
Gauḍapada: The first systematic exponent of the Monistic Vedanta is Gauḍapada, 8th century A. D. He is the teacher of Govinda, the teacher of Sankara. He was probably living when Sankara was a student. Taking 788 A. D. to be the date of Śankara we might say that Gauḍapada must have flourished about the 8th century A.D.
Gauḍapāda thus flourished after the great Buddhist teachers Asvaghosa, Nagarjuna, Asanga and Vasubandhu. He was possibly a Buddhist, and tried to show that the Upanisads tallied with Buddhism.
His work, the Gauḍapādakārikā is divided into 4
