Sriman NArAyaNAya namaha| Srimathe RamAnujAya namaha| Srimathe NigamAnta mahAdeSikAya namaha|| nama: Sri ranganAdhAya nama: Sri rangasAyine nama: Sri rangadevAya Sri srinivAsaya te nama: Question 1: Vishistadvaitins do say that the differnece between JEEVATMA and PARAMATMA is that, PARAMATMA has the power of creation and the power of bestowing MOKSHA to JEEVATMAs. If that's what makes the JEEVATMA to be controlled by PARAMATMA, is't it unfair/unjust giving one the power of creation and denying it to the other, thenin making one pray to the other for MOKSHA, though they both coexist for eternity? This is said to be question of a scientist. Being a scientist and engineer, and a bhakta raised in the fold of Srivaishnavam adiyen cannot pass the opportunity to answer this question. The answer is as follows. Jiva by definition is but an amsam of the Lord. In whatever form he exists, he also chooses to control the jivas while they are alive. The control is implicit in science, but it is explicit in religion. The science postulates intrinsic forces associated with matter. At what point do the forces enter the matter? Do the matter and forces were created and paired instantaneously? If not, which came first, matter or force? This is described by the taitriya upanishat beautifully as follows: tat shrutva tatonupravishat. God created the things (in the sense of shrusti ) and entered them ( in order to support [sustain] them for the rest of their lives .) Rest of the upanishat starting with this line is also very beautiful. Here both the advaitins and vishishtAdvaitins cannot say anything contradictory and theorize what this verse tries to postulate. It is vedam and a sensible one too. Even the scientist can appreciate that there is very small time scale where there could be difference between pure matter and matter with added force. This suggests a Nobel-prize winning opportunity for a physicist to perform an experiment in order to separate the force from matter! All the matter that we see is the matter with an added force. All light emanates from matter. This completes the basic picture of the universe. Elsewhere we have seen that the Lord is jwalantam since He makes everything shine. He creates and adds the shining ability ( which the science can quantify in 'innumerable' ways ). Thus the light is also explained. Finally, if It creates and sustains, It is certainly the Lord and the rest are just dependants. Assuming that it is not so and that everything has equal power, why does the jiva in us let us die within time scale which is very small compared to the cosmic time scale of inert objects as well as the powerful stars in the universe? In other words, why are we not as powerful as the stars, at least in terms of longevity? It is obvious that we are not equal to even a single star. Then we cannot be equal to the might of the galaxies of stars ('Koti' surya ) put together. The 'Koti' surya is still finite compared to the Infinite. Thus we, the JIVAMATMAS, are certainly just very small, and hence are at the mercy of the PARAMATMA. Since the question follows the messages related to a question on 'Aham Brahmasmi', let me add the following. We can expose the weakness of strong advaitic arguments made in favor of Aham BrahmAsmi and Tat Tvamasi this way. Saying A=B (Aham Brahmasmi) and B=A (tat tvam asi) and (hence) A is identically equal to B (once ultimate realization is attained[questionable]) is certainly mighty incorrect because we have proved just above that jiva is controlled by the paramatma. We can only subscribe to milder supplicative (in)equality advocated by Sri Ramanuja. Why? Vedantam supports advaitam. But only in a sensible way. Not to an illogical extreme. The purport of the vedantam is to show that the Lord also lives in us in the sense of providing a part of him for our forms (matter [derived in the sense of Purushs suktam] ) and function ( through anupravesam, etc.). The purport is not to show absolute equality at the end. By any measure it is insensible to assume this perfect equality. Also it is insensible to write non-advaitic commentaries on Brahma sutras which have origins in Vedantam which is actually 'advaitic'. Thus Sri Ramanuja and Vishtadvaitam having been the first in having made correct assumptions are certainly lofty and deserve our attention. Question 2: BUDDHA is considered as one of the avataras of Vishnu by some. As everyone knows BUDDHA preached AGAINST Vedas. If Buddha is one of the avataras of Vishnu, why did he contradict the Vedas? Adiyen has gathered from a Web site the detailed answer given by Srila Prabhupada for this question. The argument is powerful indeed. The answer is provided as a commentary of a verse in Srimad Bhagavatam. >From the verse stated below, we believe Buddha was born to delude the non-believers and correct their errant ways. The himsa-filled yagas of Vedas and the resulting rivers of blood made a person as powerfully influential as Buddha to revolt against the Vedas. By Vedas we mean the non-vedanta portions that described animal sacrifices. Vedanta (upanishats) completely avoid this blemish and strongly preaches ahimsa. Thus the modern hinduism is essentially vedantam. On the question of Buddha, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.24 would say: tatah kalau sampravritte sammohAya sura-dvishAm buddho nAmnAn'jana-sutah kIkatheshu bhavishyati Let us look at what Srila PrabupAda has to say for this verse. 'Then, in the beginning of Kali-yuga, the Lord will appear as Lord Buddha, the son of Anjana, in the province of Gaya, just for the purpose of deluding those who are envious of the faithful theist.' "Lord Buddha, a powerful incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, appeared in the province of Gaya (Bihar) as the son of Anjana, and he preached his own conception of nonviolence and deprecated even the animal sacrifices sanctioned in the Vedas. At the time when Lord Buddha appeared, the people in general were atheistic and preferred animal flesh to anything else. On the plea of Vedic sacrifices, every place was practically turned into a slaughterhouse, and animal killing was indulged in unrestrictedly . Lord Buddha preached nonviolence, taking pity on the poor animals. He preached that he did not believe in the tenets of the Vedas and stressed the adverse psychological effects incurred by animal-killing. Less intelligent men of the age of Kali, who had no faith in God, followed his principle, and for the time being they were trained in moral discipline and nonviolence, the preliminary steps on the path of God realization. He deluded the atheists because such atheists who followed his principles did not believe in God, but they kept their faith in Lord Buddha, who himself was the incarnation of God. Thus the faithless people were made to believe in God in the form of Lord Buddha. That was the mercy of Lord Buddha: he made the faithless faithful to him. Killing of animals before the advent of Lord Buddha was the most prominent feature of the society. People claimed that these were Vedic sacrifices. When the Vedas are not accepted through the authoritative disciplic succession, the casual readers of the Vedas are misled by the flowery language of that system of knowledge. In the Bhagavad-gita a comment has been made on such foolish scholars (avipaschitah). The foolish scholars of Vedic literature who do not care to receive the transcendental message through the transcendental realized sources of disciplic succession are sure to be bewildered. To them, the ritualistic ceremonies are considered to be all in all. They have no debth of knowledge. According to the Bhagavad-gita (15:15), vedaicca sarvair ahameva vedyo, the whole system of the Vedas is to lead one gradually to the path of the Supreme Lord. The whole theme of the Vedic literature is to know the Supreme Lord, the individual soul, the cosmic situation and the relation between all these items. When the relation is known, the relative function begins, and as a result of such a function the ultimate goal of life or going back to Godhead takes place in the easiest manner. Unfortunately, unauthorized scholars of the Vedas become captivated by the purifactory ceremonies only, and natural progress is thereby checked. To such bewildered persons of atheistic propensity, Lord Buddha is the emblem of theism. He therfore first of all wanted to check the habit of animal killing. The animal-killers are dangerous elements on the path going back to Godhead. There are two types of animal-killers. The soul is also sometimes called the 'animal' or the living being. Therefore, both the slaughter of animals and those who have lost their identity of soul are animal-killers. Maharaja Pariksit said that only the animal-killer cannot relish the transcendental message of the Supreme Lord. Therefore if people are to be educated on the path of Godhead, they must be taught first and foremost to stop the process of animal-killing as above mentioned. It is nonsensical to say that animal-killing has nothing to do with spiritual realization. By this dangerous theory many so-called sannyasis have sprung up by the grace of Kali-yuga who preach animal-killing under the garb of the Vedas. The animal sacrifice as stated in the Vedas is different from the unrestricted animal-killing in the slaughterhouse. Because the asuras or so-called scholars of Vedic literatures put forward the evidence of animal-killing in the Vedas, Lord Buddha superficially denied the authority of the Vedas. This rejection of the Vedas by Lord Buddha was adopted in order to save people from the vice of animal-killing as well as to save the poor animals from the slaughtering process of their big brothers who clamor for universal brotherhood, peace, justice and equity. There is no justice when there is animal-killing. Lord Buddha wanted to stop it completely, and therefore his cult of ahimsa was propagated not only in India but also outside the country. Technically Lord Buddha's philosophy is called atheistic because there is no acceptance of the Supreme Lord and because that system of philosophy denied the authority of the Vedas. But that is an act of camouflage by the Lord. Lord Buddha is the incarnation of the Godhead. As such, he is the original propounder of Vedic knowledge. He therefore cannot reject Vedic philosophy. But he rejected it outwardly because the sura-dvisa, or the demons who are always envious of the devotees of Godhead, try to suppor t cow-killing or animal-killing from the pages of the Vedas, and this is now being done by the modernized sannyasis. Lord Buddha had to reject the authority of the Vedas altogether. This is simply technical, and had it not been so he would not have been s o accepted as the incarnation of Godhead. Nor would he have been worshiped in the transcendental songs of the poet Jayadeva, who is a Vaishnava acharya. Lord Buddha preached the preliminary principles of the Vedas in a manner suitable for the time being to establish the authority of the Vedas. Therefore both Lord Buddha and Acharya Sankara paved the path of theism, and Vaishnava acharyas led the people on the path towards a realization of going back to Godhead. It is interesting to note that Sri Ramanuja would write a fairly long polemical commentary for gIta verse 15.15 in his gIta bhAsya deriving support of several verse from the upanishats and establish the vishnu tattvam. Effectively this verse states 'And I am seated in the hearts of all. >From Me are memory, knowledge and their removal also. Indeed I am alone am to be known from the Vedas. I bring about the fruition of the rituals of Vedas; I alone am the knower of the Vedas.' Thus Sri Krishna establishes the Godhead in the udgita upasana. dAsan U. Ve. RTV Varadarajan ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/VkWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SriRangaSri/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: SriRangaSri-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Home Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/sripedia |
srirangasri-subscribe@yahoogroups.com To subscribe to the list |