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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00054 Aug 2006

 
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Ramanuja states the siddhantha thus:

The principle of sAmanAdhikaraNya requires that the two words  'thath,'
(that)  and 'thvam' (thou) are to be explained to denote unity without
giving up their particular attributes.Those who do not accept the view
that the Supreme self without imperfections and possessing all
auspicious qualities is different fro the jiva who is experiencing
untold suffering due to beginninless avidhya in the form of karma.



But a doubt may arise that if this view is true, the text 'thathvamasi'
which mentions the oneness of jiva with Brahman would imply hat Brahman
will be contaminated by the impefections of the jiva.Rmanuja replies
that itis not so. The word 'thvam' should be taken to mean the real Self
that is, Brahman in which case the identity is established.



Ramanuja explains the passage in Chandhogya thus:

The word 'sath' in 'sadheva soumya idham agra Aseeth,ekamEva
adhvitheeyam,' that alone, was there in the beginning one only without a
second, means the Brahman who is the cause  of everything  created  by
His will and enterd into everything to become the innerself.This is
illustrated also in the TaittrEya text, 'idham sarvam asrjatha,yadhidham
kimcha; thath srshtva thadhEva anupravisath; thadhanupravisya sath cha
thyaccha abhavath.'

It means that Brahman created all this and ahftercreation entered into
everything and became 'sath' and 'thyath', that is, sentient and
insentient. From the statement that Brahman entered into all beings and
gave them name and form due to its presence in them, all words in their
ultimate connotation mean Brahman only.



Brahman is shown to be the inner self by the Chandhoya text itself viz.
'EthadhAthmyam idham sarvam, all this is ensouled by that' meaning by
Brahman. There are other texts which subatantiate this such as
'anthafpravishtahsAsthjananamsarvAthma,'(Taitt.aran.2-24 ) entering in,
he is the ruler and self of all.Similar to the passage in BrhadhAraNyaka
which states that Brahman is in all elements and individual self as
their inner Self,(Brhd.III-7-3to22) there is a text in Subalopanishad
which begins as 'yah prthivmanthare sancharan yasya prthivee sariram ,
who moves within earth and to whom earth is the body,' and proceeds to
show water etc, also as body of Brahman and ends  as 'yO aksharam
anthare sancharan yasya aksharam sariram yam aksharam na vedha - esha
sarvabhoothaAnthrAthma apahathapapma dhivyo deva EkO nArAyaNah, who is
moving inside the imperishable( that is, the individual self) to whom
the imperishable is the sarira and whom it did not know-He is the divine
Lord Narayana,who is the self of all beings and uncontaminated by evil.'



Since all these texts show that Brahman is the inner self of all beings
sentient and insentient, which form His body, all words denoting the
insentient body etc. refer only to the sentient soul. The body and the
other insentient parts of any being are its modes which have meaning
only in connection with the entity of which they are modes. So all names
and forms denote only the sentient soul and because Brahman is the inner
Self of all beings, sentient and insentient, all words have their
ultimate connotation in Brahman only.



Even when nouns are found to qualify nouns they need not be used in the
possessive case,as in 'he is a dhandee kundali etc. as long as the thing
exists as a mode only when it is inseparably connected with the entiy to
which it is the mode. As he dhanda, staff or kundala, earring are
capable of existing independently but  the body has no separate
existence apart from the soul.Since 'i' and 'thou ' are modes of Brahman
their inner self they ultimately denote Brahman only.This is the true
meaning of 'that thou art.'



Hence Ramanuja concludes that the Anandhamaya, the self of Bliss is only
Brahman and not the sentient self, vijAnamaya.Then Ramanuja explains the
taittrEya passage thus:

Starting from 'thasmAth vA EthasmAthva akasah sambhoothah,'

That is, space was produced from Brahman, from space wind etc. till man
is created,further showing  the man to be the essence of food, the
passage goes on to say that prANamaya is the self of annamaya , manomaya
is the self of prANamaya, vijnAnamaya being the self of manomaya and
finally the Ananadhamaya is denoted as the self of even vijnAnamaya.The
Ananadhamaya is thus the highest self ofwhich all else become the body.
Ramanuja says 'atha Eva idham param brahma aDHikrthyapravrttham sAsthram
sArirakam ithi abhiyukthaih abhiDHeeyathE.' this is why the sAstra which
has the supreme being as its subject matter is called by renowned
persons as sAriraka sAsthra, the study of embodied self. Hence the self 
of Bliss is different from the individual self and denotesthe Supreme
Self, Brahman.

The next suthra examines another poorvapaksha view that the meaning of
'maya' canbe either abundant or 'made of ' in which case it could mean
the individual self.































[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



 
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