Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 88

SAMAYASARA
70
self and the consequent liberation is brought about by Samyagdarśana, the true path. There is true knowledge of the self. It is the state of perfect Nirvana. All qualities have withered away from Brahma. It is nirguna, nirviseșa. Thus qualityless and formless He is beyond description-anirva canfya. Thus ends the Brahma-sutras indicating the true nature of ultimate reality-the un-conditioned Brahma.
Sankara and Vedantism-Sankara represents a stage in the development of Vedantism. He lived about the 8th century, a contemporary of Kumarila Bhatta, a student of Govinda, who was a disciple of Gaudapada. Sankara's Vedantism is expressed in his great commentaries on the Upanisads as well as Brahma-Sutras. His advaita is the logical outcome of Gaudapada's advaitism. It is most influential among the current schools of Indian thought. In his introduction to the great Bhasya on the Brahma-Sutras he says 'It is a matter not requiring any proof that the object and subject whose respective spheres are the notions of Thou and Ego and which are opposed to each other as light and darkness. The two cannot be identified. Hence it follows that it is wrong to superimpose on the subject the attributes of object and vice versa." Thus he starts with a sufficient warning that the subject and object are quite distinct and they should not be confounded with each other. He warns against the superimposition of attributesAdhyasa. The subject should not be associated with the attributes of the object nor the object with those of subject. The two are distinct in kind. One is a cetana entity and the other an acetana thing. Sankara starts just where Sankhya started. There also Cetana Puruşa is different from acetana Prakṛti. Again the starting point of modern thought in Europe was the same. Descartes started with the distinction between the thinking thing and the extended thing. Yet by an inscrutable logic adopted by both Descartes and Sankara the goal reached by them is fundamentally different from the starting point. Cartesianism ends in Spinozistic monism where the ultimate substance engulfs all things Cetana and Acetana within itself. And similarly Sankara ends with an all-devouring absolute which could not brook by its side any other entity. Sankara in the same introductory passage suggests that this Adhyasa is a common vice of our experience and is due to our ignorance or avidya. The only way to get rid of it is by Vidya or knowledge. Thus Adhyasa or mutual confusion of self and nonself is the result of ignorance. It is on ignorance that all the duties enjoined in the scriptures are based. Hence the doctrine of Pramaņas includes perception and inference. Several vedic texts enjoining various religious duties all have for their objects world which is the resultant of the avidya or ignorance. The world of objective reality is thus due to ignorance and even the vedic rites and injunctions are not excepted. These have no value for one who possesses real knowledge. Distinctions of caste, status in society, etc. are all due to adhyasa. The conception of Vedic Dharma has meaning only with reference to Adhyasa, accidental conjunction of the true self with the 10