Vedanta The End of the Vedas Uttara Mimamsa The Later Exegesis School

1. Vedanta The End of the Vedas Uttara Mimamsa The Later Exegesis School

2. Purva Mimamsa Earlier Exegesis School Mimamsa karma-kanda Vedic ritual Uttara Mimamsa Later Exegesis School Vedanta jnana-kanda Upanishads Moksha through knowledge of Brahman is the aim rather than following Vedic ritual.

3. There are many Vedantic schools (sampradayas). The Advaita Vedanta of Shankaracarya is only the most famous and influential as philosophy. All schools accept the three foundations: Upanishads Brahma Sutra Bhagavad Gita

4. The Brahma Sutra

5. Brahma Sutra aka Vedanta Sutra or Shariraka Sutra “ On the Embodied Self” Put in its final form around 500 CE. First systematization of the ideas in the Upanishads and summary of interpretations by many earlier authors, including Badarayana, who is traditionally regarded as the author.

6. The Brahma Sutra is composed of short, cryptic threads of thought that can be interpreted in various and opposed ways. Four Chapters of the Brahma Sutra Coherence of Upanishadic teachings on brahman 2. Critique of non-Vedantic views 3. Means (sadhana) of realizing brahman. 4. Fruits of knowledge. Death and destinies of souls. .

7. At death the sensory faculties dissolve into mind into breathe into the Self into the subtle body The Self passes into the heart then passes into the sushumna nadi

8. The Self then travels by a ray of light on two paths: Those with knowledge of brahman on the Northern path, the Way of the Gods, to the sun, light, and liberation. Those without knowledge on the Southern path, the Way of the Fathers, to the moon and rebirth.

9. Subtle bodies, the size of a grain of rice, return to earth through ether, smoke, mist, clouds, and rain. Ingested by animals or humans, they pass into the blood and are conceived with a physical body Those unfit for the two paths are reborn as plants, insects, and lesser animal forms.

10. Badarayana rejects the Sankhya dualism of prakriti and purusha, and makes consciousness and matter two modifications of brahman. parinama: brahman creates the universe by transforming into it The self is a part (amsha) of brahman, not separate but also not identical. bheda abheda vada different/non-different view

11. In the Brahma Sutra, brahman is the absolute, unchanging, divine intelligence, but not a personal deity. What is the relation between brahman & creation? What is the relation between brahman & the self? Is brahman a personal god or an impersonal absolute? The Vedantic schools give different answers.

12. MAJOR SUB-SCHOOLS OF VEDANTA Advaita Shankara Non-duality Abheda non-difference Bheda-Abheda Bhaskara Difference/Non-difference Vishishta-Advaita Ramanuja “non-duality of the qualified” Brahman is Vishnu

13. Dvaita Madhva Duality Brahman is Vishnu Dvaita-Advaita Nimbarka Duality/Non-duality Brahman is Krishna Shaiva Tantrism Shrikantha Brahman is Shiva Shuddha Advaita Vallabha Pure Non-dualism Brahman is Krishna

14. Acintya Bheda-Abheda “Inconceivable Difference and Sameness” Chaitanya and Baladeva Brahman is Vishnu the Supreme Personality

15. Advaita Vedanta

16. Shankara Acarya Brahmin born in Kerala 8th century CE Brahma Sutra Bhashya. Commentaries on the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, and Gaudapada’s Karikas with its ajativada (no-birth) doctrine influenced by Mahayana Buddhism.

17. Shringeri Math in Karnataka

18. Advaita Non Duality Radical Monism Atman is Brahman All change and plurality is an appearance— an illusion produced by avidya: cognitive error. Brahman is real. The universe is unreal. The universe is Brahman. Ramana Maharshi

19. Mahavakyas prajnanam Brahma Aitareya Upanishad Brahman is Consciousness. aham Brahma asmi Brhadaranyaka Up. I am Brahman. Tat tvam asi Chandogya Up. That you are. Ayam atma Brahma Brhadaranyaka Up. This self is Brahma.

20. Avidya: The soul identifies itself with the finite body/mind, forgetting it is really only the Atman. Satchitananda: Sat Cit Ananda being consciousness bliss Shankara rejects Sankhya parinama and prakriti (pradhana), at least from the ultimate point of view.

21. Parinama: real, material, transformation of Brahman into the world. Vivarta: Creation is only apparent. Effect is mere appearance. Satkarya-vada of Sankhya: effect pre-exists in the cause. Satkarana-vada of Shankara: Only the cause exists.

22. The Two Levels of Being Paramarthika: Reality brahman ultimate pure eternal unchanging Vyavaharika: Appearance the phenomenal, empirical world of self/object duality, senses, ordinary persons, and practical life. Appears real until brahman is realized. Pratibhashika: Illusion

23. Epistemology

24. Adhyasa: superimposition, projection upon the substrate of brahman of previous experiences and memories. avarana power of veiling vikshepa distortion projection Misidentification of the self with its phenomenal appearance. The self confuses itself with its reflection.

25. Theory of Limitation avaccheda vada Upadhi: limitation, karmically determined conditions of body and mind that limit and distort cognition. When free of upadhis, the self shines forth in its singularity. Projecting separation where there is non like the space in a pot as distinct from Space.

26. Reflection Theory pratibimba reflection The individual self is a reflection of the Atman on the mirror of ignorance. The moon’s reflections on the water seem to be separate and multiple. Your reflection in a mirror appears as you and separate. It has empirical reality as pure appearance, but is not you.

27. The Psycho-Physical Jiva (the embodied self) Gross physical body sthula sharira Subtle body sukshma sharira 5 sense organs indriyas 5 organs of action karmendriyas (voice, hands, feet, excretory and reproductive organs) Vital breath prana Intellect buddhi Ego ahamkara Sensory mind manas }antahkarana

28. Shankara accepts the six pramanas of Mimamsa but only three are important. Testimony Perception Inference No valid means of knowing at the lower empirical level.

29. The Jiva is made of projections rather than material evolutes of prakriti. The Jiva appears because of the failure to discriminate (viveka) the real self from its non-real appearance. All Selves are identical to Atman untouched by the apparently separate mind-body complexes.

30. Maya: the empirical world like a magical is illusory but exists. Maya is anirvacaniya— inexpressible. It cannot be said to be real or unreal. It is the the totality of errors caused by avidya. Shankara insists that maya does not entail subjective idealism.

31. Two Sub-Schools of Advaita Bhamati Mandana Misra, Vacaspati Misra The self is the locus of ignorance (avidya) Brahman is untouched by maya Plurality of jivas with their own ignorance VivaranaPadmapada, Suresvara Brahman is the locus of ignorance. Jivas are mere reflections of the Atman.

32. He resolves the contradiction by the two levels of truth. Subject-object duality is real on the phenomenal level. It is sublated (badha) or transcended as unreal on the ultimate level. We realize it to be an appearance within the one consciousness.

33. The Five Koshas of the Self Taittiriya Upanishad Anna maya kosha body Prana maya kosha life energy Mano maya kosha mind Vijnana maya kosha awareness Ananda maya kosha bliss S U B T L E B O D Y

34. The Self’s Four Levels of Consciousness A Waking jagarita U Dreaming svapna M Deep Sleep sushupti AUM Transcendental consciousness turiya Mandukya Upanishad

35. GOD

36. Nirguna brahman higher impersonal absolute Saguna brahman empirical appearance Ishvara, personal Lord, creator god on the level of appearance and maya. Narayana or Vasudeva

37. Liberation

38. Jivanmukti prarabdha karma karma in process of manifesting that cannot be avoided. samskara latent impression from past lives vasana habit energy samnyasa renunciation upasana worship of saguna deity image worship puja nidhidhyasa sustained contemplation on the Supreme Self by samnyasis, meditation on OM

39. Vishishtadvaita Vedanta

40. Ramanuja 11th -12 century CE in his commentary on the Brahma Sutra, Shri-Bhashya, strongly criticized Advaita. He rejected the idea of nirgunabrahman. Brahman is not an impersonal absolute. Brahman has personal qualities (saguna).

41. Ramanuja rejected maya. The world is not an unreal illusion—a Buddhist idea— that diminishes God’s creativity, power, and grace. Vishnu is Brahman and is the supreme soul. The world is his body Brahman is the soul of the world just as we inhabit our bodies.

42. Vishishta Advaita “Qualified Non-Duality” “the non-duality of that which is qualified” The Self is non-different from brahman. But persons and material things are qualities of brahman like the color red is is a quality of a rose, distinguishable (vishishta) from it, but still interfused with its being. Individual selves are modes (prakara) of brahman Brahman is fully present in each part, but transcends them all.

43. The best way to know Brahman is the path of devotion (bhakti) and the path of action (karma) rather than the Advaita path of knowledge (jnana) Upasana Devotional contemplation of the Supreme Lord Prapatti Liberation is attained by self-surrender to God’s grace. Ramanuja was a Shri Vaishnava and combines Vaishnava theology and popular worship of Vishnu with Vedanta.

44. The Lord as saguna brahman undergoes a real transformation of his body, not an illusory one. brahma-sharira-parinama from the subtle to the gross level of manifestation of individual souls and the inanimate material world. His purity and transcendence are untouched by creation. Thus Ramanuja rejects Shankara’s satkarana but accepts satkaryavada.

45. In the interludes between world creations and destructions— pralaya:the cyclic dissolution of the universe. —souls and the cosmos rest latently in Vishnu in the subtle form.

46. Brahman is only saguna Ishvara the Lord Vishnu and his Avatars

47. Dvaita Vedanta Madhva 13th century CE Radical Dualism Rejects Advaita monism Advaitins are deceitful demons. Uncompromising monotheistic conception of God. God created the universe (jagat), made of prakriti, and souls. No Parinama No Vivarta No Maya God is the efficient, not the material cause of the world.

48. Selves and the world are fully real, not an illusion. Souls are eternal but separate and dependent upon God’s grace for their existence and salvation Souls are plural and God determines their destinies. The self is not absorbed in Brahman. Tat tvam asi is not an assertion of identity, but of similarity of qualities. Worship is the path to God. Eternal damnation for the wicked.

49. Shri Harsha 12th century CE Advaita Khandanakhandakhadya “ Sweets of Refutation” Contest between Nyaya and Vedanta as the fundamental philosophy of Hinduism. Vedanta wins. Potter’s “bhaktized Advaita leap philosophy” Demolishes all the concepts of Mimamsa, Buddhism, and, especially of Nyaya-Vaisheshika:

50. Counterattack on Nyaya-Vaisheshika  No pramanas are valid.  All categories are indefinable and so unreal: Being, Cause, Relation, Universals, Time, Space, Numbers, and Qualities are all self-contradictory  God’s existence cannot be proved  Perceptual realism is indemonstrable.