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4. Sadvidya as interpreted by Ramanuja

        The text of the Chandogya Upanishad 'sadheva soumya idham 
agra aaseeth ekameve adhvitheeyam' and   its sequel 'thatvamasi' are 
considered by the advatins to mean that 'sat', Barhman is the only 
reality and the world of diversity is not real. Ramnuja does not 
agree with this view and according to him the chandogya text and 
sadvidya envisaged in it  supports only the visishtadvaita concept of 
Brahman He says that the text  ' sadeva idham agra aaseeth, Sat alone 
existed in the beginning' does not negate the world  as unreal  
because the subsequent  text which says,' thadhaikshatha bahusyaam 
prajaayeya, it willed to become many,' disproves this.

         The essence osf sadvidya is that by knowing 'sat ' , that 
is, Brahman, the absolute reality, everything else becomes 
known. 'ekavijnaanena sarvavijnaanam.' The context of the passage in 
Chandogya is as follows:

        The son, Svethakethu  retuirns from his gurukula and the 
father Uddhaalaka Aaruni asks him whether he has learnt everything 
Svethakethu answers in the affirmative and seeing him conceited at 
his  knowledge the father asks him  whether he asked his guru for 
that teaching by which  what is unheard becomes heard, what is 
unthought becomes thought and what is unknown becomes known, ' yena 
asrutham srutham  bhavathi amatham matham, avijnaatham vijnaatham.' 
Then the son, knowing not what is meant by the father asked him to 
teach that by knowing which everything becomes known, ekavijnaanena 
sarvavijnaanam.

        Uddhaalaka Aaruni explains that knowledge through three 
examples  Just as all things made of clay are understood  by the 
knowledge of a single clod of clay, just as by knowing a single ingot 
of gold all that is made of gold would become known, just as by a 
single nail parer all that is made of iron would become known because 
all are only modifications of the causal substance, knowing that 
which is the cause of everything  all become known. That is the 
teaching .

        Then the father starts imparting the knowledge to the 
son. 'Sadheva soumya idhamagra aaseeth ekameva adhvitheeyam.'  There 
was only 'sat ' in the beginning, one only, without a second. Sat , 
Brahman is the cause and idham the world is the effect. By knowing 
the cause all the effects become known as illustrated by the examples 
of mud,gold and iron. This is the content of the text.quoted, says 
Ramanuja.The knowledge of the one leading to the knowledge of the 
many proclaimed in the sadvidya section of the Upanishad means that 
the knowledge of 'one,' that is, kaarana Brahman leads to the 
knowledge of 'many',that is, the kaarya Brahman, both being real. The 
words 'ekameva' and 'adhvitheeyam denote that Brahman is the material 
and efficient cause.

5.Brahman as the cause of the world

        Based on the sadvidya section of the Chandogya, Ramanuja 
demonstrates the unity of the cause and the effect. ' Sat alone 
existed' before creation in the sense that this world, differentiated 
into names and forms, existed as 'one' before creation, devoid of 
names and forms.Brahman is the material cause as it existed alone 
without a second. In the creation of a pot , the mud is the material 
cause and the potter is the efficient cause . But Brahman being 
omnipotent needed no external aid for creation and there was nothing 
except Brahman in the beginning. Therefore Brahman is both material 
and efficient cause of the universe. This is what is meant 
by 'ekameva adhvitheeyam.'

        The causal relationship between Brahman and the world is 
explained  by Ramanuja in Sribhashya based upon common experience. 
The Chandogya text  gives illustrations of mud etc. in order to show 
that the effect is only a modification of the cause 'vaachaarambhanam 
vikaarah naamadheyam mrthikethyeva satyam' and hence the knowledge of 
the 'one' which is the cause leads to the knowledge of the 
modificatons of nama and rupa, the effects. Ramanuja  makes this more 
explicit  by another example. The childhood, youth and old age  of 
the same individual, say, Devadatta are only different modifications 
in the sarira of Devadatta. Similarly the gross manifestations of the 
world of cit and acit are only the modifications of the sarira of 
Brahman, the sariri. Thus the cosmological theory of Ramanuja is 
based on the sarira-sariri relationship between Brahman and the 
universe. Thios leads to the concept of sarira-sariri bhava of 
visishtadvaita.








          








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