Ramanuja outlines the basic concept of visishtadvaita by his
explanation of the word 'brahma.' He says 'brahmasabdhEnacha
svabhAvathah nirasthanikhiladhoshah anavadhika athisaya asankhyEya
kalyANagunaganah Purushotthamah abhidheeyathE.' The word 'brahma'
refers to the supreme Purusha, NArAyaNa, who is naturally devoid of
all defects, (this eliminates other relalised,muktha, everfree,
nitya, souls), and possesses infinite,wonderful, inconceivable
auspicious qualities. These words serve to deny the concept of
nirguNabrahman. By this statement he declares without any ambiguity
that the word brahma is synonymous with NArAyaNa, removing any doubt
to the contrary.(devathAntharavyAvrtthyarTHah-Sudarsanasuri.)
The adjectives anavadhika and asankhyeya with reference to
His wonderful, athisaya and infinite,anantha kalyANa gunagana,
auspicious qualities, show that they are inconceivable by vAk and
manas. Avadhi is limit and sankhya is number. His qualities are
anavadhika ,not limited by words or thought and asankhyEya ,
countless, as Desika says in YadhvAbhyudhaya, 'yadhEkaikaguNaprAnthE
shrAnthAh nigamavandhinah yathAvath VarNanE asya,' The vedas
proceeding to describe Him as He is,become exhausted by the time they finish
relating about even one of His qualities.
Ramanuja then proceeds to show that the word brahman can only
mean nothing but sarvesvara . Brahma sabda is derived from the
root 'brh' to mean greatness and though it can be applied to anything which is
great, the mukhyArTha of the word can only be, that which is by nature
possesses the greatness to an infinite degree, as in the case of the word
'bhagavat' which denotes only
the Lord. The implication here is that the word, great being, brahma, is not
meant in the adjectival sense but as the mukhyArTHa, in its denotation of
something which is great by nature.
Another reason for the word 'brahma' denoting sarvesvara is
given by Ramanuja as 'thApathrayAthuraih amrthathvAya sa Eva
jijnAsyah.' As the Lord is the sole resort for those who are affected by
thApathraya, the three afflictions of samsara, namely
Adhibhouthika, Adhidhaivika and AdhyaAthmika, He alone becomes the
object of jijnAsA. The ills of samsara are due to the three thApaas,
suffering due to fate due to no reason, Adhidhaivika, due to other
beings and natural elements,, Adhiboutika and due to our own physical and
mental conflicts for which our own actions are responsible, AdhyAthmika. Even
though these maybe remedied by other means they are not permanent and permanent
remedy is possible only by the grace of the Lord, who alone can release us from
the samsara. So 'sa EvA JIJNaSYAH,' He alone has has to be inquired.
After examining the implications of the word 'brahma' and
explaining it to mean Narayana the last word of the suthra jijnAsA is examined.
The word is a compound meaning jnAthum icchA, desire to
know. The one who has studied the PurvamimaAmsA comes to know of its
alpa asTHira phalathva and turns to Utthara mimAmsA with the desire
to attain the permanent bliss of moksha.
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Everything you need is one click away. Make Yahoo! your home page now.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/AHchtC/4FxNAA/yQLSAA/XUWolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
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/
|
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
oppiliappan-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |