📎 Main topics:
- The Vaishnava schools
- Nimbārkacarya meets Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
- Ramanujacarya - Visistadvaita-vada
(specific monism, non-dualism with distinctions, or purified monism)
- The three wishes of Yamunacarya
- The Visistadvaita philosophy
- Madhvacarya - Suddha-dvaita (purified dualism)
The Vaishnava schools
- Sankaracarya spoke the truth, but not the whole truth. He hinted at the true conclusion of the Vedas being the process of devotional service, but most of his followers were not able to catch it. Instead, they emphasized the impersonal aspects of the philosophy and ended up becoming full-blow Mayavadis.
- However, the work of Sankaracarya was not in vain. He fulfilled his mission of reducing the influence of Buddhism in India and brought back the study of the Vedas and the acceptance of Brahminical culture.
- Although not able to understand the real meaning of the scriptures, people again accepted the knowledge of the scriptures as infallible knowledge, and this opened the path for the advent of the four great Vaishnava acaryas, culminating with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
- Each of the four acaryas was able to establish a new component of the devotional philosophy, creating the conditions for the appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who brought the conclusion.
- Each of the four acaryas had full knowledge of the conclusion of the scriptures, but they were teaching according to time, place, and circumstance, fulfilling their missions.
- When we study the philosophies of the four great acaryas, we can find differences between them, but we should not see them as contradictions, but just as different points of view of the same Supreme Absolute truth. They all agreed on the fundamental conclusions.
Nimbārkacarya meets Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu
- In the Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma Māhātmya (chapter 16), it is described a visit of Nimbārkacarya to Navadvīpa, where he met with the four Kumaras. They told him:
"Knowing that Kali-yuga would be dark, the merciful Lord decided to preach devotion. He empowered four devotees and sent them to preach devotion throughout the world. Rāmānuja, Madhvācārya, and Viṣṇu Swāmī are three of them. You are the fourth of these great devotees. Lakṣmī Devī accepted Rāmānuja, Brahmā accepted Madhvācārya, and Śiva accepted Viṣṇu Svāmī. Today, we have met you personally. We will make you our disciple and thus become fortunate. This is our purpose."
- After giving him initiation, the Kumaras instructed Nimbārkacarya on the teachings of the Sanat-kumāra-saṁhitā and in the worship of Radha and Krsna.
- By faithfully doing that, He finally had the Dharshan of the divine couple, who revealed to him their combined form as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He told him:
"O great soul, for now, keep this form a secret. Preach devotion to Kṛṣṇa and the Pastimes of the Divine Couple. Their Pastimes are My greatest joy. When I appear in the form of Gaura, I will find great pleasure in Pastimes of scholarship. At that time, you will take birth in Kāśmīr and travel throughout the land of Bhārata, conquering all directions. Everyone, everywhere, will call you Keśava Kāśmīrī and praise you for being highly learned. While travelling, you will come to Navadvīpa Dhāma and stay in the village of Māyāpura. Hearing your name, the greatest scholars in Navadvīpa will flee. At that time, immersed in Pastimes of scholarship, I will defeat you and feel great pleasure. By the grace of Sarasvatī, you will understand My identity, take shelter of Me, and give up your pride. Then, I will give you devotion and send you to preach devotion again. So for now, satisfy Me by preaching the conception of dualistic non-dualism and keep My identity secret. When I start My saṅkīrtana Pastimes, I will preach the essence of your conception."
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu them revealed:
"When I start My saṅkīrtana Pastimes, I will preach the essence of your conception. I will accept two essential principles from Madhva Ācārya. One is his refutation of exclusive non-dualism. O great soul, know the second essential principle to be serving Kṛṣṇa’s Deity form, knowing the Deity to be eternal.
From Rāmānuja, I will take two essential principles: exclusive devotion and service to the devotees. From Viṣṇu Svāmī, I will accept two essential principles: surrender to the Lord and the path of love. From you, I will accept two most essential principles: taking shelter of Rādhārāṇī exclusively and serving in the mood of the gopīs."
Ramanujacarya - Visistadvaita-vada
(specific monism, non-dualism with distinctions, or purified monism)
- Ramanujacarya was born in the village of Sriperumbudur (in the current state of Tamil Nadu, in the south of India) in an aristocratic family.
- He was married at the age of 16 and soon later, after the death of his father, moved with his family to Kanchi, a city famous for being a center of learning, home of many great scholars. There, he became a student of Yadava Prakasha, a revered scholar in the line of Sankaracarya.
- Initially, Yadava was very impressed by Ramanuja's intelligence, but later he became inimical to him when he started to contest some of his monistic interpretations of verses from the scriptures.
- Yadava eventually decided to expel him, but changed his mind, fearing that he could open his own school and surpass him. Instead, he decided to, in cooperation with his disciples, to kill Ramanuja during a pilgrimage to Kashi (Varanasi), but he was frustrated.
- Similarly, the envious king Krimikantha tried to imprison Ramanuja and kill him, but his plans were also foiled and he died a miserable death because of his offense.
- Eventually, Yadava Prakasha and his disciples became his followers, and in this way, they were saved from a similar fate.
- Once, a great Vaishnava called Kancipurna visited Ramanuja, begging for alms. Ramanuja immediately understood his spiritual stature and acted very respectfully to him.
- Although born in a family of lower social status, Kancipurna was a disciple of the great saint Yamunacarya. Ramanuja received siksa from him and repeatedly asked to become his disciple, but out of humility, Kancipurna refused his requests.
- Later, when Yamunacarya visited the city, he noticed Ramanuja. When he heard from his disciples that he had written a devotional commentary on the sloka "satyam jñānam anantam brahma" from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which completely defeated the philosophy of Sankaracarya, he understood he was divinely empowered.
- However, because at the time Ramanuja was studying under Yadava Prakasha, the two never met. However, just by attracting the attention of Yamunacarya, Ramanuja imperceptibly attained his mercy.
The three wishes of Yamunacarya
- When Yamunacarya was about to leave his world, he remembered Ramanuja and asked Mahapurna, his most trusted disciple to bring him before he left his body.
- Ramanuja immediately agreed to come, but while they were on the way, Yamunacarya left, after giving his final instructions to his disciples: to always worship the deity of Sri Ranganatha, always remember his lotus feet, depend always on his mercy and become free from false ego by always serving Vaishnavas.
- Ramanuja and Mahapurna arrived when the procession with the body of Yamunacarya had already reached the river and they were preparing to put him in samadhi.
- His body was in a yoga posture, with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand joined and the other three fingers extended. The right hand was closed into a fist.
- No one could understand the meaning of such a posture, but Ramanuja immediately understood its significance. He said: "The revered Yamunacarya has three wishes he wants to be fulfilled."
a) The first desire, he mentioned, was to protect people in general from the onslaught of impersonalism and give them the nectar of the service to Lord Narayana. As he spoke thus, one of the fingers of the dead body of Srila Yamunacarya extended outward.
b) He then mentioned the second desire, to write a commentary on the Vedanta sutra, establishing the Supreme Person as the ultimate reality. As he spoke this, a second finger extended.
c) He then proceeded to declare the third wish: To honor Parasara Muni and other great teachers from the past. As he pronounced this, a third finger extended, confirming that this was indeed the third wish. It was a miracle.
- Ramanuja accepted the responsibility of fulfilling all three wishes, and all the other disciples understood he was empowered by Yamunacarya to take over his mission.
- Later, he was initiated by Mahapurna and left family life, becoming a sannyasi. He was accepted by the disciples of Yamunacarya as their leader and became known as Ramanujacarya.
- He preached extensively, establishing the devotion to Lord Narayana as the correct path. He departed from this world when he was 120 years old.
His last instructions to his disciples were:
a) Always remain in the company of devotees and serve them, just as you would serve your spiritual master.
b) Have faith in the words of the Vedas and the previous acaryas.
c) Never become a slave of your senses.
d) Always strive to control the great enemies of self-realization: lust, anger, and greed.
e) Worship Lord Narayana and take refuge in His holy name.
f) Service to pure devotees is the highest activity, and by it, one quickly attains the mercy of the Lord.
The Visistadvaita philosophy
- Yamunacarya and Nathamuni propounded the Visistadvaita philosophy, but Ramanujacarya was the first to be able to do it on a large scale.
- He traveled extensively, defeated numerous philosophers, and established devotion to Lord Narayana as the proper path according to the Vedas.
- For centuries, his followers in the Sri Sampradaya have been debating with and defeating propounders of the monistic philosophy.
- Ramanujacarya wrote the Sri-bhasya, the first real challenge to the Sariraka-bhasya of Sankaracarya.
- This commentary was the cornerstone of the Vaishnava refusal of the monistic philosophy. Even today, Vaishnavas still draw arguments from his commentary when faced with opposing arguments.
- The Advaita philosophy of Sankaracarya is based on the principle of absolute monism. Everything is Brahman, and there is nothing apart from Brahman, which is seen as homogeneous, undifferentiated, and without qualities or personality.
- The individual souls are nothing but parts of Brahman that have fallen into illusion, and the material world is false. When the soul becomes free from illusion, individuality finishes, and one merges back into Brahman. Therefore, only Brahman is reality.
- Ramanujacarya strongly opposed these ideas. He argued that it's not possible to cultivate knowledge about an object without qualities.
- Knowledge necessarily implies the object has certain qualities that can be known. Instead of an impersonal, undifferentiated Brahman, Ramanujacarya brought the concept of a personal God, who has transcendental qualities.
- God is thus infinite, all-auspicious, omniscient, and omnipotent and is meant to be served by the infinitesimal souls.
He explained that the Lord appears in five different features:
a) As the arca, the deity in the temple.
b) In the form of the different Vaibhava (pastime) incarnations mentioned in the scriptures, such as Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Nrsimha, etc.
c) In the Vyuha incarnations: Vasudeva, Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, and Aniruddha.
d) Inside the heart as Antaryami or the Supersoul.
e) As the impersonal Brahman, the effulgence of His transcendental body.
The Visistadvaita philosophy is defined as "non-duality with distinctions" or "qualified non-dualism" because while it accepts that everything is God, it makes distinctions between the different energies of the Supreme.
- Although the souls and matter are also God in the sense of being His energy, there is a distinction between these different features of the Supreme.
Srila Prabhupada explains this point:
"Krsna should not be thought of as being alone but should be considered as eternally existing with all His manifestations, as described by Rāmānujācārya. In viśiṣṭādvaita philosophy, God's energies, expansions, and incarnations are considered to be oneness in diversity. In other words, God is not separate from all these; everything together is God." (ToLC Intro)
According to Sri Ramanujacarya, there are three truths (tattva-traya):
a) The sentient (the souls).
b) The non-sentient (matter).
c) The Supreme Lord.
- The innumerable living entities, as a collective, are called the sentient energy of the Supreme Lord, whereas the cosmic manifestation is the non-sentient material energy of the Lord. Everything that exists is thus a combination of sentient and non-sentient,
- Just like all living entities are a combination of the body (non-sentient) and the soul (sentient), the universe itself is a combination of non-sentient matter (the planets, etc.), and the sentient Lord present everywhere as the Supersoul.
- This philosophy of differentiation, called Visistadvaita-vada, introduced the idea of a personal God, the idea of the material world being illusory but not false, and the idea of devotional service to the Lord as the ultimate goal of life.
- Srila Ramanujacarya also propounded the idea that the soul, being infinitesimal, has the propensity to fall victim to ignorance, falling into this temporary and abominable material world.
- However, when ignorance is destroyed by the practice of devotional service, the soul becomes again liberated. Liberation however does not imply becoming equal with the Supreme Lord.
- He also established that both the living entities and the material manifestation are parts of the Lord, and not something separated from Him. In other words, the Lord is everything, but He has different energies.
Srila Ramanujacarya also reestablished the process of pancaratra, or worship according to regulative principles that had been almost stopped since the spread of Buddhism.
- Temple worship is extremely important since it is the process that helps regular people gradually elevate themselves to the path of devotion.
- Sankaracarya focussed on defeating the Buddhist philosophy. Because he didn't teach the principles of pancaratra, his followers had to contend with following a process of dry asceticism, which is much more difficult and problematic.
- Starting from Ramanujacarya, all Vaishnava acaryas have been emphasizing the process of temple worship as essential.
Madhvacarya - Suddha-dvaita (purified dualism)
- Srila Madhvacharya was born as Vasudeva in 1238, in a village called Pajaka-Ksetra, close to Udupi, in South India.
- His parents performed austerities for twelve years with the goal of getting an enlightened son. They were blessed with the fulfillment of the prophecy that Vayu would incarnate on earth and perform many uncommon activities.
- On many occasions, their son would showed that he was not a common child:
* Once, when his father had fallen into debt, he gave a bunch of tamarind seeds to the creditor as payment. The creditor initially thought it was child's play, but when he looked, he saw that the seeds he had in his hand had transformed into gold coins, sufficient to pay the debt.
* When they visited a nearby village to hear a philosophical discourse on the Puranas by a Brahmana named Shiva, the young boy completed the explanation when the Brahmana became perplexed upon reaching a difficult passage.
* Once, when returning from school, he was delayed by the attack of a venomous serpent. Not only did he crush the serpent with great strength using his toe, but jumped the last half a mile of the way back home to not be late and worry his mother.
- When he concluded his studies, at the age of eleven, he went in search of a guru, finding shelter in Achyuta Preksa in Udupi. He then adopted the name Madhva. At sixteen he entered the Sannyasa order and later became known as Madhvacharya.
- Although Achyuta Preksa was a member of the Advaita school of Sankaracarya, Srila Madhvacharya had a cordial guru-disciple relationship with him.
- Gradually he developed his own philosophical system, presenting his Suddha-dvaita philosophy, pointing out the defects of Sankara's philosophy, and introducing a devotional understanding of the Absolute Truth.
- Achyuta Preksa gave him the freedom to teach his philosophy, and made him the head of a separate monastery.
- He also encouraged him to write his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, which he later did, writing the Purnaprajna-bhaṣya.
- The Vedanta Sutra brings the conclusions of the Upanisads, which were in turn written by Vyasadeva to teach the philosophical conclusions of the scriptures. The Vedanta Sutra is thus nothing less than the conclusion of the whole Vedic literature.
- Since the times of Sankaracarya, the system is that every new philosopher or acarya who introduces a new philosophical system should write his commentary on the Vedanta Sutra, showing that his philosophy is sustained by the Vedic literature.
- Just like Ramanujacarya wrote his commentary, sustaining his Visistadvaita philosophy, Madhvacarya wrote his own, establishing his Suddha-dvaitavada (or Tattvavada). Later, Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana wrote his Govinda-bhasya, firmly establishing the Acintya-bhedabheda-tattva of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
- Madvacarya spent much of his time discussing philosophy with prominent members of other philosophical schools.
- With representatives of astika schools (the ones that accept the Vedas) he would debate based on the Vedanta Sutras, using references from the sutras themselves as well as other books inside the Vedic literature, combined with logic.
- He also extensively debated with representatives of nastika schools (the ones that don't accept the Vedas) such as Buddhists and Jains, to whom he applied strong logic to establish his views.
- At the time, the system was that the defeated party would have to accept the philosophy propounded by the victor and become his disciple.
- Different from what is common nowadays, these scholars were looking for the truth, and would thus abandon their old views when presented with something higher.
- In this way, Madvacarya made a huge number of disciples from the most intelligent classes.
An introduction to Vedanta Philosophy from the Vaishnava Perspective #3