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GEORGE BURCH
ophies are poles apart. According to non-dualism only Brahman is real, all empirical things being unreal, and salvation is attained, or rather recognized as eternally possessed, only by knowledge of this truth. According to Visishtadvaita all things are real, permeated by the Brahman which is their essence, and salvation is attained by all the ways of action, knowledge, and love. For Visishtadvaita matter, spirit, and Absolute are equally real (p. 139), and in it the epistemological values of absolutism and the ethical values of theism are reconciled (p. 142). Visishtadvaita is a "yes philosophy" which affirms everything and denies nothing (p. 230).
For Visishtadvaita, as for all schools of Vedanta, Brahman is the absolute reality. The description of Brahman (which Ad: vaitins exhaust in three words—being, consciousness, bliss) covers 189 pages. Brahman is the sustainer, ruler, redeemer, goal, beauty, and substance of all things. One chapter is devoted to each of these six aspects. Only this comprehensive understanding of Brahman can satisfy all the demands of our metaphysical, moral, and aesthetic consciousness (p. 94). Brahman is im manent Self, trancendent God, and absolute Reality. It is the Brahman of the Upanishads, the Overself of the Gita, the Lord of the Bhagavata, the idol of the temples (p. 163). The deity exists transcendentally in its essence, infinitely in the cosmos, immanently in the soul, historically in its incarnations, permanently in its images (p. 204). The categories of philosophy are the qualities of God (p. 224). The problem of philosophy formulated in the Upanishad, "What is that by knowing which everything else is known?” is answered by Brahman (p. 235).
Visishtadvaita is above all a philosophy of religion. It identifies the Absolute of philosophy with the God of religion. The discovery that God is the real subject of all action gives a new orientation to moral and spiritual life (p. 145). Both right action and true knowledge are necessary for salvation, indeed they are inseparable, for ignorance is caused by wrong action (p. 152). Knowledge requires both faith and reason (p. 429). The performances of the Mimamsa school, the rationalism of the Advaita school, and the faith of the Dvaita school are equally inadequate without the others. But most important is loving devotion to
