📎 Main topics in this episode:
- The evolution of spiritual understanding
- Lord Buddha - Sunyavada (nihilism)
Who is Siddhartha?
His philosophy
Rejecting the Vedas
Nirvana
Buddha, the avatar
- Sankaracarya - Advaita-Vedanta (non-dualism)
Who is Sankaracarya?
Life and teachings
The Advaita philosophy
What is Brahman?
Why he did that?
An example
Mayavada
The most horrible philosophy
The main ideas:
The evolution of spiritual understanding
- A famous story: Once, six blind men started touching an elephant. The first bumped against its belly and concluded that the elephant was just like a wall. The second touched its tusk and concluded that the elephant was just like a spear. The third touched his trunk and concluded that the elephant was similar to a snake. The fourth touched one of his legs and concluded the elephant was just like a tree. The fifth, who touched its ear, concluded the elephant was like a fan, while the last touched its tail and concluded the elephant was just like a rope. The six blind men thus started arguing about who was correct.
- Similarly, there are many different philosophical systems in India: The teachings of Lord Buddha, the philosophy of Sankaracarya, and finally the four great Vaishnava acaryas.
- These different systems represent an evolution of philosophical thinking, in which each acarya has built on top of the philosophy propounded by the previous.
- This created a chain that brings us to the teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who revealed the science of the eternal relationship of the soul with the Supreme Lord in its totality.
Lord Buddha - Sunyavada (nihilism)
- We all know that 5000 years ago, Vyasadeva compiled the Vedas, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, etc. organizing and categorizing all the knowledge.
- However, with the start of Kali-yuga, the essence of the Vedic knowledge compiled by Vyasadeva was gradually lost. About 2,500 years later, ritualism and hedonism had become prevalent in India.
- People were mostly using passages in the Vedas that mentioned animal sacrifices as an excuse to kill animals and eat their flesh.
- We can see that Narada Muni had alerted Vyasadeva about this in the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"The people in general are naturally inclined to enjoy, and you have encouraged them in that way in the name of religion. This is verily condemned and is quite unreasonable. Because they are guided under your instructions, they will accept such activities in the name of religion and will hardly care for prohibitions." (SB 1.5.15)
- Observing the sad situation, the Lord advent as Lord Buddha to teach ahimsa or non-violence, the most basic of spiritual principles.
- Buddha taught the path of Nirvana, attracting people's attention to something superior to mere materialistic life.
Who is Siddhartha?
- Lord Buddha appeared as Siddhartha, a prince born in the province of Gayā, in what is now the state of Bihar, in the north of India.
- The appearance of Lord Buddha was predicted in the Srimad Bhagavatam:
"Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Añjanā, in the province of Gayā, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist." (SB 1.3.24)
- When the prince was just five days old, astrologers predicted that he would become a renunciant and seek the path of enlightenment after seeing four signs: an old man, a sick man, a dead body, and a mendicant.
- The king was anxious to keep his son tied to materialistic life. He became very careful in hiding all of these from the prince's view. Only young, beautiful, healthy, and well-dressed people were allowed in front of him.
- Once, however, the prince decided to visit the royal gardens. Despite all the preparations, on the way he met with an old man, a lepper, a funeral procession, and a mendicant.
- He understood that everyone is attacked by disease, becomes old, and eventually dies. Understanding the nature of this material world, he left the palace to become a mendicant and seek spiritual perfection. He became known as Buddha, the enlightened.
His philosophy
- Buddhism spread quickly over India, replacing the Vedic ritualism that was practiced at the time.
- Nowadays there are many different branches of Buddhism and great philosophical variety in their teachings. However, the original philosophy propounded by Siddhartha is based on four fundamental truths:
a) Duhkha (the existence of suffering).
b) Samudaya (the cause of suffering).
c) Nirodha (the idea that suffering can be extinguished).
d) Marga (the path to attain freedom from suffering).
- He pointed to birth, death, disease, and old age as the symptoms of suffering, and to lust, material desires, and thirst for power and wealth as the causes of suffering.
- He taught that extinguishing suffering means freeing oneself from lust, and the path to attain such freedom was pointed out as maintaining the right beliefs, aspirations, effort, speech, and meditation.
- He explained that only the ones who followed the path of non-violence, restraining from committing all sorts of violence (both physical and mental) against other living entities, could understand the truth.
- Nirvana, the ultimate extinction of all suffering, could be attained only by the pure. Others would remain in samsara.
Rejecting the Vedas
- Sometimes it's easier to build a new house than to fix an old and rotten one. Instead of arguing based on the Vedas, trying to correct people's misconceptions, Buddha just rejected the Vedas and propounded a new path.
- By doing that, he successfully taught atheists basic religious principles. People became attracted by his philosophy, and thus abandoned the hedonism and animal killing, and adopted instead a path of moral life, cultivation of knowledge, and meditation.
- Although Buddha hinted at the existence of the soul by accepting the concept of samsara, he didn't directly speak about God. Since he rejected the Vedas, there was no possibility of introducing high truths on these topics.
- Instead, his approach was mainly empirical, focusing on what could be experienced, instead of abstract ideas.
- Extinction of suffering was the main interest of people, and that's what he focussed upon, elaborating on the nature of material misery and how it can be extinguished.
Nirvana
- Buddha speaks about Nirvana. What is it according to our philosophy?
* The Nirvana propounded by Buddha can be understood as the form of liberation where the soul attains pradhāna (or Causal Ocean), the unmanifested mass of material elements.
* In this position, the soul becomes free from the influence of material modes and all kinds of material anxiety and can exist in a state of complete peace.
* However, the soul doesn't awaken his original spiritual consciousness. One stays there like in deep sleep.
- Just like liberation in the brahmajyoti, existence in the pradhāna is thus a form of temporary liberation, from where one can eventually fall back into the material ocean.
- However, compared to a hedonistic life, that's a huge improvement.
Prabhupada: “Similarly, when the materialist becomes frustrated in his attempts to enjoy himself in the limited material world, he may seek impersonal liberation by merging either with the Causal Ocean or with the impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence. However, as neither the Causal Ocean nor the impersonal brahmajyoti effulgence affords any superior substitute for association and engagement of the senses, the impersonalist will fall again into the limited material world to become entangled once more in the wheel of births and deaths, drawn on by the inextinguishable desire for sensual engagement.” (SB 2.2.31)
Buddha, the avatar
- In the Srimad Bhagavatam, Lord Buddha is pointed as one of the 22 avatars of Vishnu. His philosophy is thus not accidental, but part of a superior plan to gradually restore proper religious principles, which are lost with the advent of Kali-yuga.
- From the same Srimad Bhagavatam, we receive the information that Buddha appears in every Kali-yuga to teach the principles of non-violence.
- These are considered sub-religious principles, because they simply teach people to have a moral and meditative life, without directly speaking about devotional service to God.
- However, they are still valuable, helping people in times when even the most basic, common-sense principles are lost.
- In the Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a description of another advent of Lord Buddha, in a different Kali-yuga, when human beings had developed spaceships capable of attacking other planets:
"When the atheists, after being well versed in the Vedic scientific knowledge, annihilate inhabitants of different planets, flying unseen in the sky on well-built rockets prepared by the great scientist Maya, the Lord will bewilder their minds by dressing Himself attractively as Buddha and will preach on subreligious principles." (SB 2.7.37)
Sankaracarya - Advaita-Vedanta (non-dualism)
- The foundations built by Lord Buddha created the conditions for the appearance of Sankaracarya, who brought the next step of the stairs.
- The philosophy of Lord Buddha is called Sunyavada, or nihilism, while the philosophy of Sankaracarya is called Advaita-Vedanta, or non-dualism.
- Both philosophies are quite similar. Basically, Buddhism says that the absolute truth is zero, a void where one can find the absence of suffering. Sankaracarya in turn says the absolute truth is one, the impersonal, undifferentiated, and qualityless impersonal Brahman.
- By achieving this Supreme Brahman, one can find the end of all the illusory designations of this material world and realize his existence as independent from matter.
- Philosophically, there is little difference in their conclusions, but the Advaita-Vedanta is based on the Vedas.
- This opened the door to the reestablishment of Brahminical culture and allowed the different Vaishnava Acaryas who came later to gradually rebuild the correct conclusions of the scriptures by adding the topics Sankaracarya avoided.
-Who is Sankaracarya?
- Sankaracarya appeared in the 8th century, about 1,300 years after Lord Buddha. At that time, Buddhism had become the prevalent philosophy in India.
- Followers of the Vedas were still mostly ritualistic karma-kandis with little understanding of the real purpose of the scriptures.
- Sankaracarya's mission was to reestablish the authority of Vedas by teaching a philosophy that was similar to Buddhism, but based on the Vedas, especially on the Vedanta-sutra.
- Thanks to is contribution, philosophers in India returned to the study of the Vedas, which opened the doors for other acaryas to gradually reestablish the real goal of the scriptures.
- It's well-known that Sankaracarya was an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa (25.7) mentions:
māyāvādam asac-chāstraṁ/ pracchannaṁ bauddham ucyate
mayaiva vihitaṁ devi/ kalau brāhmaṇa-mūrtinā
"[Lord Śiva informed the Goddess Durgā, the superintendent of the material world,] 'In the Age of Kali I take the form of a brāhmaṇa and explain the Vedas through false scriptures in an atheistic way, similar to Buddhist philosophy.'"
- In his Jaiva Dharma (chapter two), Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains the advent of Lord Shiva as Sankaracarya:
"Paramahaṁsa Premadāsa Bābājī prostrated himself respectfully upon hearing the name of Śrī Śaṅkarācārya. He said, “My dear sir, always remember this: …śaṅkaraḥ śaṅkaraḥ sākṣād… ‘Śrī Śaṅkarācārya is Lord Śiva himself.’ Śrī Śaṅkarācārya is the spiritual preceptor of all the Vaiṣṇavas and for this reason Śrī Caitanya has acclaimed him as an ācārya, great preceptor. Śrī Śaṅkarācārya is a perfect Vaiṣṇava.
“At the time of his appearance, India urgently required a guṇa-avatāra, an incarnation who presides over the material nature, because the spread of the voidistic philosophy of Buddhism had caused India to practically give up the cultivation and study of the Vedas, as well as the practice of varṇāśrama–dharma, the Vedic social system. Nihilistic Buddhism, known as śūnyavāda, directly denies the existence of a personal God and although hinting at the principle of the jīvātmā, the eternal spirit soul, Buddhism remains in essence anitya–dharma. In those days, the brāhmaṇas had all but forsaken the Vedic religion and converted to Buddhism.
“At this historic moment, the extraordinarily powerful Lord Śiva appeared as Śrī Śaṅkarācārya and reinstated the pristine glory of the Vedas by transforming nihilistic Voidism into monistic Brahmanism. This was a spectacular achievement, for which India will always remain indebted to Śrī Śaṅkarācārya. Works in the world may be judged by two standards. Some works are tat–kālika, specific to a particular time, and others are sarva–kālika, for all time. Śrī Śaṅkarācārya’s achievement, which resulted in great good for human society, belongs to the former category. He laid a firm foundation, upon which Śrī Rāmānujācārya and Śrī Madhvācārya later constructed the grand edifice of pure Vaiṣṇava philosophy. Therefore, he is one of the greatest benefactors and historic torchbearers of the Vaiṣṇava religion."
Life and teachings
- Sripada Sankaracarya appeared in Kaladi, a province in the south of India, as the son of a Brahmana called Shivaguru.
- He was a prodigious student, learning in just one year what others would take 12 years to learn. At the age of eight, he left home to become a renunciant.
- He became a disciple of Govindapada. From him, he learned four sutras from the Upanisads that would later become the basis of his philosophy:
"prajnan brahma" (Brahman is consciousness)
"ayamatma brahma" (the self is Brahman)
"tat tvam asi" (you are that)
"aham brahmasmi" (I am Brahman)
- These four sutras are considered the four mahavakyas (the four great statements) of the Advaita-Vedanta philosophy, and other verses are interpreted according to them.
- Just like Vaishnavas accept SB 1.3.28 (ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam, "All of the above-mentioned incarnations are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Personality of Godhead") as the Paribasa Sutra of the Srimad Bhagavatam and understand the whole book from this prism, Mayavadis interpret the whole Vedic literature from the prism that everything is Brahman and we are that Brahman.
- When Sankara was twelve, his guru sent him to Benares to convert the Buddhists there to the path of the Vedas. Buddhism is considered an atheistic philosophy due to their rejection of the Vedas, and thus Sankaracarya had the mission of bringing them back to theism, accepting the Vedic scriptures.
- Defeating many great philosophers, he soon attracted many disciples and became known as Sankaracarya.
- Vaishnavas also respect him as a great teacher because of his efforts in bringing people back to the path of the Vedas.
- We disagree with the Mayavada philosophy he propounded, but at the same time understand it as a compromise he had to make according to the time and circumstance.
The Advaita philosophy
- Sankaracarya wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita and other books, but his most famous work was the Sariraka-Bhasya, his commentary on the Vedanta-sutra.
- According to him, Brahman is the supreme reality, beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is eternal, formless, and unchanging.
- His philosophy is called non-dualism, or monism, because it doesn't distinguish the supreme Brahman from the individual soul.
- According to it, both are the same, being the souls just parts of Brahman that become covered by Maya. According to his philosophy, once this covering is removed, one becomes again one with Brahman.
- This brings us to the equivocated Mayavada ideas that were later contested by other acaryas, starting with Sri Ramanujacarya:
a) God has no form and no activities.
b) We are all God since we are all parts of the Supreme Brahman that became covered by Maya.
c) Once the veil of Maya is removed, we become all one. Outside of the material illusion, there is no individuality.
d) Maya is greater than Brahman (since it has the power to put it under illusion).
e) Krsna and all His incarnations accept material forms when they descend since all forms and activities exist only under the veil of Maya.
What is Brahman?
- According to Sankaracarya, Brahman is never transformed, and therefore the material world is unreal. It exists only under the illusion of Maya.
- Once the illusion is removed, one understands that there is no material world, just like one may see a rope on the road and under illusion take it as a snake, but when the mistake is clarified understand that there was never a snake.
- The question of from where this illusion or Maya comes is considered unanswerable and Brahman is considered to be indescribable in words since any description would be covered by the illusion of Maya.
- Becoming free from Maya, according to him, means renouncing all relationships with the material world, including all forms of "I and Mine" (including wife, children, properties, and so on).
- Traditionally the followers of Sankaracarya emphasize renunciation and asceticism, but in modern times many impersonalists who concoct new philosophies based on his teachings go in the opposite direction, propounding hedonistic philosophies.
Why he did that?
- Sankaracarya created a philosophy according to what was necessary to reestablish the Vedas at the time, offering something familiar to the audience, but at the same time one step higher.
- The problem is that the impersonalist philosophy he composed is not supported in the Vedas, which very strongly support the idea of a personal God and recommend the path of devotion.
- The verses in the Vedas, and particularly the passages that compose the Upanisads, have both direct and indirect meanings, and Sanskrit words can be interpreted in different ways. By cleverly playing with the grammatical rules, as well as suffixes, prefixes, and affixes of the words, he was able to interpret books like the Vedanta-sutra and the Bhagavad-Gita in ways that suited his philosophy.
- He, however, didn't touch the Srimad Bhagavatam, because the direct way it explains the process of Bhakti makes it impossible to misinterpret.
An example
- One of the four mahavakyas of the Mayavada school is "tat tvam asi", which is often accepted by Mayavadis as their main mantra.
- Just as we chant Hare Krsna, they chant "tat tvam asi", as a means of realizing their real identity as the Supreme Brahman. Their belief is that by repeating this mantra, studying the Vedanta, and analyzing reality according to this knowledge, one comes to the stage of realizing one's real nature. When one finally attains it, he seems himself as the Supreme Brahman.
- This passage comes from the Chandogya Upanisad (6.10). There, Uddālaka describes several characteristics of the Supreme Brahman to his son, Śvetaketu, and concludes each explanation with the words "tat tvam asi".
- Mayavadis interpret this passage as meaning "you are that (Brahman)". Some gurus in the West even translate it as "I am God". However, this is not the correct interpretation.
- "Tat tvam asi" indicates similarity. For example, when we say "you are like him", pointing to another person, it doesn't mean that literally, you are him, but that although different individuals, you share similar qualities or characteristics.
- Similarly, the soul is the same as the Lord in terms of quality but is different in terms of quantity. The soul is also a separate individual.
- It's thus incorrect to interpret tat tvam asi as "you are that". The correct translation is "You are like that", indicating that we are like the Lord, although eternally separated as different individuals.
- Prabhupada translates tat tvam asi as "you are the same spiritual identity" and as "you are as good as God."
- Being spiritual and transcendental, as good as God, we need to revive our original spiritual identity by the practice of Krsna Consciousness, becoming detached from the material body and the material manifestation, just like Krsna is.
- Prabhupada: "Although sitting in the same body as the individual soul, the Supersoul has no affection for the body, whereas the individual soul does. Therefore one has to detach himself from this material body, by discharging devotional service."
- Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura comments the real meaning of "tat tvam asi" in his Jaiva Dharma (ch. 18), where he concludes:
“A person who realizes the actual truth of tat tvam asi ultimately attains devotional service to the Supreme Lord and becomes a true practising brāhmaṇa.
Mayavada
- Most of the points in the philosophy of Sankaracarya are valid points explained in the Vedas. In the Srimad Bhagavatam, it is mentioned:
vadanti tat tattva-vidas,/ tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam
brahmeti paramātmeti/ bhagavān iti śabdyate
"Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān."
- The Lord has three aspects that are simultaneously true:
a) For the devotees, he appears in His personal aspect, as Bhagavatam, the processor of all opulences. b) To the yogis, He appears as the localized Paramatma.
c) To the impersonalists as the effulgent Brahmajyoti.
- The Bhagavatam aspect is supreme, but all three aspects are part of the same absolute truth. Most of what Sankaracarya did was to explain the Brahman aspect, which sounded familiar to the people of the time while avoiding the two higher aspects.
- However, the need to emphasize the impersonal aspect led him to reject the idea of Brahman processing potencies, which in turn leads to the conclusion that the jivas have no individual existence once separated from matter.
- This takes the idea of transcendental relationships out of question and thus negates the very nature of the soul, which is love and service to Krsna.
- Mayavadis accept the ideas of worshiping the deity and chanting the holy names as just temporary processes that one practices to later realize one is God. Even the guru is seen as just a stepstone, that one accepts with the idea of later rejecting after attaining a certain stage of realization.
- The idea that Brahman has no potencies also leads to the conclusion that the material world is false.
- We disagree with this idea, arguing that being true, Brahman can't create something false, but inside of Mayavada philosophy, this is the only way to explain how a changeless Brahman, who has no potencies can create the material manifestation.
- They conclude that the material manifestation doesn't exist, it is just Maya. Brahman is not transformed by creating it, since the material world ultimately doesn't exist.
- Brahman is thus formless and qualityless, and all forms, qualities, activities, etc. exist only under the realm of illusion.
The most horrible philosophy
- The conclusion that all forms, qualities, activities, etc. exist only under the realm of illusion leads to the most terrible belief of the Mayavada philosophy.
What is it?
They conclude that when Brahman comes to the material world as an incarnation, He assumes a material form. According to the Mayavadis, Krsna had a material body and was acting under the three material modes while executing His pastimes, just like one of us.
- This idea that the form of the Lord is material was defined by Lord Caitanya as the most terrible philosophy, and all Vaishnavas protest strongly against it.
- That's what we call it Mayavada philosophy. Calling the falsity of their claim that the transcendental form of the Lord is material.
- The Brahma Sutras directly contradict the Mayavada philosophy, by stating that Brahman has transcendental qualities and is describable in words, that Maya is subordinate to Brahman, that the material world comes from the molding of the external potency and is thus not false, that the individual soul is distinct from the Supreme Brahman, and so on.
- When the word jugglery is removed, the true meaning of the sutras becomes apparent.
- In his last words, Sankaracarya expressed his true mission:
bhaja govindam, bhaja govindam/ bhaja govindam mudha-mate
samprapte sanhite kale/ na hi rakshati duhkrin karane
"Worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, you fools and rascals! Your rules of grammar and word jugglery will not help you at the time of death."
An introduction to Vedanta Philosophy from the Vaishnava Perspective #2