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] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oppiliappan/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: Oppiliappan-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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