Ramanuja Vedānta (Visistadvaita)

Ø  Ramanuja’s philosophy is a harmonious combination of absolutism with personal theism. This is attempt is similar to the attempts made in Gītā, Mahābhārata. This attempt took three different lines:

1.      Vais̩navism: the personal divinity was identified as Vishnu. According to this theism there are four main sects-

a.       Sr̩isampradaya (vishistadvaita of Ramanuja)

b. Brhamsampradāya (Dvaita of Madhava), also known as anandatirtha. Chaitanyasampradaya (Achintyabhedabheda) is treated as the branch of Madhvaism.

c.       Rudrasampradāya (Shuddhadvaita of Vishnuswami and Vallabha

d.      Sanakasampradaāya (Dvaitaadvaita of Nimbarka)

2.      Shaivism: personal divinity is identified as Shiva.

3.      Shaktism: personal divinity is identified as Shakti.

Ø  Agama is the sacred text of the Vaisnavas, Shaivas and the Shaktas. Agama is placed side by Vedas and sometimes as Vedas. And it is divided into four parts−jnana or knowledge, yoga or concentration, kriya or acts and charya or the methods of worship.

Ø  Agama of Vaisnavism is called panchratra samhita, of Saivism is called Saiva agama and of Shaktas is called Tantra.

Ø  Shaktas practically allied themselves with the shaivas.

Ø  Among the Panchratra literature the satvata samhita, jayakhya samhita and the ahirbhudhnya samhita are philosophically most important.

Ø  Ramanuja is also known as Yatiraja.

Ø  Books and commentaries by Ramanuja:

·         Shri-bhasya

·         Vedanta-dipa

·         Gita-bhasya

·         Gadya-traya

·         Vedanta-sara

·         Vadartha sangraha

Ø  Other related books and commentaries:

·         Shrutaprakasika: commentary on shribhasya by Sudarshan suri.

·         Tattvatika: commentary on sri-bhasya by Venkantanatha or Vedantadesika

·         Nayadyumani: by Maghanadari.

·         Tattvatraya by Lokacharya

·         Yatindramatadipika by Shrinivas

Ø  Bhaskara upholds bhedabheda theory which means both identity and difference are equally real.

Ø  Antahkaranopadhavachchhinna: ajiva is Brahman limited by the mind.

Ø  Sources of knowledge: Ramanuja accepts three sources of knowledge- perception, inference and verbal testimony.

Ø  Ramanuja advocates karma-jnana-samuchchaya:

·         karma-kanda and the jnana-kanda of the veda are complimentary to each other.

·         Ramanuja differs from Sankara.

·         Sankara subordinates karma-kanda to jnana-kanda.

Ø  All knowledge involves discrimination and it is impossible to know an undifferentiated object.

Ø  Knowledge: ajada or immaterial and it is distinguished from both matter and spirit. And knowledge is never for itself but it is always for others.

Ø  Substances: are of two types- chetna or spiritual and jada or material.

Ø  Knowledge is self-luminosity but not self-conscious and self-luminosity is different from self-consciousness. Self is both.

Ø  Ramanuja agrees with Prabhakara of Mimamsa School in maintaining that knowledge is self-luminous and that it reveals its objects and knowledge is a subject-object relationship and it is possible only when it is in relation to an object.

Ø  However ramanuja differs from Prabhaka in maintaining that knowledge forms the essence of the self and is not its accidental quality.

Ø  Ramanuja agrees with Sankara in maintain that the self is an eternal self-conscious object and that knowledge is its essence. However he differs from him in refusing to identify the self with pure-consciousness.

Ø  Dharma-bhuta-jnana: knowledge also belongs to the self and hence it is called attributive knowledge.

Ø  Theory of error according to Ramanuja is of omission and not of commission.

Ø  All knowledge is intrinsically valid, it always corresponds to its object. His view is known as Satkhyati or Yatharthakhyati- in knowledge it is the existent real alone which is cognized, i.e., there is real object corresponding to its content.

Ø  Error is partial knowledge and there is no logical distinction between error and partial knowledge.

Ø  Ramanuja’s metaphysics is opposed from Advaitic position of sankara.

Ø  Ramanuja’s view is called Visistadvaita. It is non-dualism qualified by dualism.

Ø  Ramanuja recognizes three things as ultimate and real which is called tattva-traya. These are matter (achit), souls (chit), God (isvara). The first two are dependent on God however they are equally real.

Ø  Aprthaksiddhi: the relation between the soul and the body is that of inner inseparability.

Ø  God is both the material and the instrumental cause of the world. He is called svabhavika, sanatana and antaryami.

Ø  To know Brahman according to Ramanuja is to know bhokta (enjoyer), bhogya (enjoyed) and perita (mover). These three are the absolute and it is written in Shvetasvatara Upanisad.

Ø  Taittriya Upanisad tells us:

·         All things arise from, live in and return to Brahman.

·         God is the soul of nature, soul of the souls, immanent yet transcendent.

Ø  Ramanuja’s account of God:

1.      Identified with the absolute.

2.      He is Brahman and Brahman must be Savishesa.

3.      May be viewed through two stages .i.e., cause and effect.

4.      During dissolution (pralaya) God remains cause. And during creation (srsti) God becomes the effect. Pralaya is the karanavastha of Brahman (causal state). And srsti is the karyavasta of the Brahman (effect-state).

5.      God is the immanent inner controller (antaryami), divine body (aprakrtadehavishista) and transcendent perfect personality.

6.      God as the creator is called pradyumana. Soul is knower (jnata), agent (karta), enjoyer (bhokta).

Ø  Achita or Matter: It is of three kinds-

·    Prakrti or Mishrasattva: ordinary matter which makes samsara. It is an object of enjoyment (bhogya) and suffers change (vikaraspada), it has qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas.

·         Nitya-vibhuti or shuddhsattva: it is made up of pure sattva and is ajada.

·         Kala or Sattvashunya

Ø  According to Ramanuja there are six substances which are divided into three categories and each category consist two kinds of substances. First, unconscious (jada) it includes kala and prakrti, second, conscious (chetna) and it includes chit and ishvara, immaterial (ajada), dharmabhutijnana and nityavibhuti.

Ø  Brahmaparinamvada:

·         Creation is  real

·         Entire universe is the real modification of Brahman.

Ø  Aupapatti: it is referred to as seven charges against Maya. These are as follows:

1.      Ashrayanupapatti

2.      Tirodhanaupapatti

3.      Svarupanupapatti

4.      Anirvachaniyatvanupaptti

5.      Pramananupapatti

6.      Nivartakanupapatti

7.      Nivrtyanupapatti

Ø  Venktanatha also known as vedantadesika refuted advaita in shatadusani.