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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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