2. The philosophy of visishtadvaia Ramanuja asserts that the sole source of the knowledge of Brahman being the scriptural texts, they should be interpreted so as not to be contradictory in their purport. Brahman, that is Narayana, is defined in Sribhashya as the Supreme ruler, possessing innumerable auspicious qualities, anantakalyanaguna visishta, satyakama satyasankalpa, true- willed ,sarvajna, omniscient, sarvasakthiman,omnipotent and full of mercy. Narayana that is, Brahman is the creator, protector and annihilator as per the sruti text 'yatho va imaani bhoothaani jaayanthi yena jaathaani jeevanthi yasmin abhisamvisanthi thadvijijnaasasva thadbrahma,' and contains within Himself all beings from the four-faced Brahma to the blade of grass. He is the dispenser of the fruits of action.. Ramanuja considers both the texts describing Brahman as nirguna as well as saguna are equally valid. He says that the saguna texts mention the infinitely auspicious qualities of Isvaara while the nirguna texts negate inauspicious qualities in Him. Ramanuja claims that the auspicious qualities being the essence of Brahman there is no possibility in His being nirguna. Brahman is described as savisesha by Ramanuja in Sribhashya which is different from thr term saguna used by sankara. Savisesha implies the relatinship between the substantive and the attribute, that is, dharmi and dharma. For instance the fire is the dharmi and the heat is the dharma which is inseparable from its dharmi, the fire, without which the svarupa of fire will not exist as such. 3.Brahman is savisesha. Brahman is defined as 'satyam jnanam anantam' and also aanandham in Taittiria Upanishad. Ramanuja considers the word nirguna describing Brahman only to mean that Brahman is free from all finite qualities or the omperfections of the finite beings. The text 'satyam jnanam anantam brahma' defines Brahman only as visishta, satyam denoting infinite existence as the absolute reality, jnanam, the infinite knowledge or omnscience and anantam refers to the fact that Brahman is not conditioned by time, place or entity, desakalavasthu paricchinnarahitatvam. It means that Brahman is not limited by space being all encompassing, sarvavyapin, not limited by time being everlasting, anaadhyantharahitha and not limited by entity as there is nothing but Brahman everywhere. Similarly Brahman is anandham ,bliss. These are according to Ramanuja, svrupanirupaka dharma, inseparable attributes as in the example 'blue lotus.' Even though the words 'blue' and 'lotus' have different connotations taken separately, in the word 'blue lotus' they mean the same entity. Ramanuja calls this ekaarthavrththi, according to the principle of samanadhikaranya, defined by Patanjali in Mahabhashya on Panini, as 'denotationof the same object through different connotations,' This principle of samanadhikaranya along with that of sadvidya and sarira- sariri bhava form the tripod on which the philosophy of visishtadvaia stands firm. The unity of Brahman with the world is that of visishtaaikya and not svarupaaikya. The Reality is visishta in the sense of being an organic whole where the viseshana, attribute and the viseshya, the substantive exist in inseparable relation to each other. It is not svarupa aikya or absolute identitiy that is meant which necessitates the denial of the world as unreal. Ramnuja in his Sribhashya establishes Brahman as savisesha on the basis of various sruti texts. [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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