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JUNE 2014
PRABUDDH JEEVAN
49
ralist (for the noumena are many), Sankara is an Ide- alist and a thoroughgoing Monist.
Sankara comes close to Bradley in his Absolutism. Both are Monists and Absolutists. Self-consistetency and harmony are tests of Truth to Bradley: so too, to Sankara. There are degrees of Reality to Bradley, so there are stages of Existence and Experience to Sankara.
Sankara Bears comparison to Bergson in some respect. Like the latter he believes in the efficacy of intuition in preference to the Intellect in our approach to Truth. Reality to Bergson is Becoming in the sense of Life. To Sankara the Real is Brahman as being the Ātman or Chaitanya.
The Ethical Teaching in Sankara's Monism : for Sankara the aim of life is the realisation of the Identity of the Individual with the Infinite Reality. This is selfrealisation, and this is absolutely good: moral goods are only relatively good. Salvation is the prize of Right Knowledge. Right action in itself has no value.
As only Brahman exists, the gulf between good and bad has, it is said, no significance in Sankara, and that makes morality impossible. But this is a wrong interpretation of Sankara's views. He does not say that the world is a fiction, but only that it is a phenomenon of which the real is the Brahman. "Fire is one only, and yet we shun a fire which has consumed dead bodies, not any other fire.' When, therefore, the I=Brahman it is not the empirical or active Self which is Brahman, but only the Self whose false impressions are removed which is = Brahman.
Sankara's ethics is criticised as intellectualistic, for salvtion is to him the result of Insight, and not of moral perfection. But the Insight in Vedānta comes as the result of moral perfection. The qualifictions in the study of Vedānta include the realisation of moral perfection.
Again, Sankara is charged with preaching Asceti- cism. Really, Sankara insists on denying selfishness, and the tone of asceticism on his philosophy is partly apparent due to repeated exhortations to crucify the flesh, partly real and such as cannot be avoided in the philosophy which denies the pluralism of the world.
Rāmānuja : Life and Writings : He was born in 1017 A.D. in Perumbudur, a village in Trichinopoly Dis- trict. The Vaišnavas in the Deccan were called the
Alwārs and Saiva devotees Adiyārs. There were 12 chief Alwārs and then the acharyas. Rāmānuja was connected as a remote descendent to the achāryas. Rāmānuja was connected as a remote descendent to the acharya Nāthamuni : He was in early years the pupil of a teacher Yadavaprakāśa. Rāmānuja could not agree with his teacher on all points, and it is reported that the teacher formed an unholy design on the life of the pupil, in which he failed. Alavandar, the head of the Śrngeri temple wanted to instal Rāmānuja in his sect, but died before this was possible. It is said, when he died, 3 of his 5 fingers were folded, This, it was explained, meant that his 3 desires were unfulfilled, one of these being that an easy commentary on the Brahma Sutra should be written. Rāmānuja proclaimed that, God willing, he would fulfil these wishes, and he did it.
At times, great men are unhappy due to their wives. So was it with Socrates. So was it with Rāmānuja, and he became a Sanyāsi, and his admirers grew in their admiration for him, and he was thence called yatirāja. He settled at Sriroangam, and wrote and preached his philosophy, the Visishtādvaita or Qualified Monism. His commentary on the Brahma Sutra is known as Sri Bhāśya. He wrote Vedāntsāra, Vedārthasangraha, and the Vedāntadipa, and the commentary on the Bhagavadgitā. He was a staunch Vaišnavite reformer and he also like Sankara had travelled considerably in India. He died in 1137 A.D. at the unusually long life of 120 years.
The Philosophy of Rāmānuja : Accroding to him the Ultimate Reality is one with Attributes : fafgie or qualified (by Soul and Matter-चित् and अचित्) अद्वैत or monism. God alone exists, with the two real attributes of chit and achit. These attributes are called the modes (प्रकारs) or theaccessories (शेष) or the controlled (नियाम्य) of the Brahman. There are two states of existence for the Brahman, that of Pralaya or Quiescence, when souls and matter exist in deep sleep as it were in Him, and Creation. To Rämänuja, Creation is Real, not unreal as to Sankara. It is a positive volitional efferot of Brahman to display diversity. 'He thought, may I become many, may I grow forth.' The end of Creation is justice. Brahman created this world as recreation; it was no compulsion to Him.
Like Sankara, Ramanuja accepts the sole authority of Śruti and Smrti for the knowledge of the Brahman. Reason is to be resorted to only in matters perceptible
