Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s38: I Introduction

Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s38

Language: English

I Introduction

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PHILOSOPHY has its roots in man’s practical needs. If a system of thought cannot justify fundamental human instincts and interpret the deeper spirit of religion, it cannot meet with general acceptance. The speculations of philosophers, which do not comfort us in our stress and suffering, are mere intellectual diversion and not serious thinking. The Absolute of Śaṃkara, rigid, motionless, and totally lacking in initiative or influence, cannot call forth our worship. Like the Taj Mahal, which is unconscious of the admiration it arouses, the Absolute remains indifferent to the fear and love of its worshippers, and for all those who regard the goal of religion as the goal of philosophy—to know God is to know the real—Śaṃkara’s view seems to be a finished example of learned error. They feel that it is as unsatisfactory to natural instincts as to trained intelligence. The world is said to be an appearance and God a bloodless Absolute dark with the excess of light. The obvious fact of experience that, when weak and erring human beings call from the depths, the helping hand of grace is stretched out from the unknown, is ignored. Śaṃkara does not deal justly with the living sense of companionship which the devotees have in their difficult lives. He declares that to save oneself is to lose oneself in the sea of the unknown. Personal values are subordinated to impersonal ones, but the theist protests that truth, beauty and goodness have no reality as self-existent abstractions. An experience that is not owned by a subject is a contradiction in terms. Truth, beauty and perfection speak to us of a primal mind in whose experience they are eternally realised. God himself is the highest reality as well as supreme value. Moreover, the innermost being of God is not solely the realisation of eternal truth or the enjoyment of perfect beauty, but is perfect love which expends itself for others. The value of the finite world to the Spirit of the universe lies in the spirits to whom he has given the capacity to make themselves in his own image. The spirits themselves possess a value in the sight of God, and not merely their degrees of intelligence or virtue, abstractly considered, which they happen to realise. It follows that they are not made simply to be broken up and cast aside.

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Rāmānuja concentrates his attention on the relation of the world to God, and argues that God is indeed real and independent; but the souls of the world are real also, though their reality is utterly dependent on that of God. He believes in a spiritual principle at the basis of the world, which is not treated as an illusion. He insists on the continued individual existence of the released souls. Though the world of matter and the individual souls have a real existence of their own, still neither of them is essentially the same as Brahman. For, while Brahman is eternally free from all imperfection, matter is unconscious, and the individual souls are subject to ignorance and suffering. Yet they all form a unity, since matter and souls have existence only as the body of Brahman, *i.e.* they can exist and be what they are simply because Brahman is their soul and controlling power.¹ Apart from Brahman, they are nothing. The individual soul and inanimate nature are essentially different from him, though they have no existence or purpose to serve apart from him or his service. So Rāmānuja’s theory is an advaita or non-dualism, though with a qualification (viśeṣa), viz. that it admits plurality, since the supreme spirit subsists in a plurality of forms as souls and matter. It is therefore called Viśiṣṭādvaita or qualified non-dualism.

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¹ “Everything in this world, whether individual souls or material things, form the body of the supreme soul, and therefore the above can be said to possess a body unconditionally (nirupādhikaśarīra-ātmā). For this very reason competent persons call the body of teachings (śāstra), having Brahman for its subject-matter ‘śārīraka.’”

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In ethics also there was a protest against the intellectualism favoured by the followers of Śaṃkara and the ritualism of the Mīmāṃsakas. Even as early as the age of the Ṛg-Veda we found that gods were sometimes entreated by prayer and at others compelled by ritual. The sacrificial cult had always to contend with the devotional worship of the Supreme through symbols, originally in groves and later in temples. In the sacrificial religion of the Vedas, the priest who officiates is more important than the deity. But the dative case offers no solace to the aching heart. Kumārila, moreover, the Brahmin architect who tried to build a stable society out of the chaotic conditions left by the disintegration of Buddhism, sought to strengthen the Brahmanical cult by laying the foundations of caste solid and strong in a system wherein only the three upper classes were allowed to perform sacrifices, while the people at large were left to their own devotional cults. Hence the reaction against the Mīmāṃsakas led to the development of the theistic religions of Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Śāktaism, which laid little stress on considerations of caste, race or social status. Theism has implicit in it the social hope. As children of the common father or mother, we are all on the same footing. All men, high or low, are equally precious to the parental heart.

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Though Śaṃkara did not mean by jñāna theoretical learning, there was a tendency among some of his disciples to make religion more an affair of the head than of the heart or will.¹ They shut out from eternal life the soul that is wrong, as well as the soul that is wicked. The mechanical repetition of the formula "I am Brahman" is a sorry substitute for intelligent devotion. Hence the emphasis on bhakti by the theistic systems, including the four Vaiṣṇava schools.² Despite doctrinal differences, these are all agreed in rejecting the conception of māyā, in regarding God as personal, and the soul as possessed of inalienable individuality, finding its true being not in an absorption in the Supreme but in fellowship with him.

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¹ Cp. Vākyārthajñānamātrād amṛtam iti (Tattvamuktākalāpa, ii. 45).

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² Śrīsampradāya of Rāmānuja, Brahmasampradāya of Madhva, Rudrasampradāya of Viṣṇusvāmin, and Sanakādisampradāya of Nimbārka.

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THE ĀGAMAS

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As the native inhabitants of India came more and more completely under the Aryan influence, there was a great extension of the Hindu religion. The higher Dravidian and the lower aboriginal peoples both helped to modify the old Vedic sacrificial cult in favour of temple worship and public festivals. As new tribes were assimilated, new sects were formed, each with its own marks (tilaka), its mode of initiation (dīkṣā), its teacher (guru), its watchwords (mantras) and its scriptures (śāstras). Very early in its career Hinduism developed the important cults of Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Śāktaism, with their distinctive scriptures, the Pañcarātra Saṃhitā, the Śaiva Āgama and the Tantra.

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The Āgamas are generally divided into four parts, called jñāna or knowledge, yoga or concentration, kriyā or the acts relating to the founding of temples and the installing of idols, and carya or the method of worship.¹ It is clear that the Āgamas deal with religions which believe in image worship, since they lay down elaborate rules about the construction and the consecration of temples. The Śāktas were practically one with the Śaivas, except that they clung to certain primitive practices and worshipped Śakti, the consort of Śiva. The conception of God with wife and children is one of primitive thought, which is necessarily anthropomorphic. The Sāṃkhya theory of puruṣa and prakṛti offered a philosophical justification for Śakti, the principle of life and expression. As Śiva is unknowable, unapproachable and entirely inactive, Śakti, who is one with him, ever active, became the source of divine grace.

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¹ Padma Saṃhitā, i. 2. 6; ii. 1. 3; iii. 1. 6; iv. 1. 1.

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From the Tamil works of Nālaḍiyār, Śilappathikāram, Maṇimeghalai and Kural, it is obvious that the Buddhist and the Jaina religions had considerable influence in South India in the early centuries of the Christian era. According to Śilappathikāram (first century A.D.), there were Viṣṇu temples, Buddhist Vihāras and Jaina places of worship, in the city of Kāveripatnam. Aśoka sent his missionaries in the third century B.C., and about the same time Bhadrabāhu, according to the tradition, led a migration of the Jains to the South with the Maurya King Candragupta. But Buddhism and Jainism could not satisfy the Draviḍian temperament, which longed for a God who could receive and reward passionate devotion. The monotheistic cults of Vaiṣṇavism and Śaivism developed, and the saints of the two schools were much influenced by the respective Āgamas.

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THE PURĀṆAS

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The Purāṇas are the religious poetry of the period of the schools, representing through myth and story, symbol and parable, the traditional view of God and man, cosmogony and social order. They were composed with the purpose of undermining, if possible, the heretical doctrines of the times. They are eclectic in their character, mixing up philosophical doctrines with popular beliefs. Vyāsa is reputed to be the author of the Purāṇas.¹ They regard themselves as continuing the tradition of the Vedas.² The Purāṇas,³ though they refer to philosophical doctrines, do not aim at systematic development. Their main object is to convey the lessons of ancient thinkers, especially those of the Vedānta and the Sāṃkhya. Their name indicates that they are intended to preserve ancient (purāṇa) traditions. They are all theistic in character, and recognise the distinctions of matter, soul and God. The conception of trimūrti comes into prominence, though each Purāṇa is interested in emphasising the supremacy of one particular aspect, Viṣṇu or Śiva. In a Purāṇa, which insists on the supremacy of Viṣṇu, Śiva and Brahmā worship Viṣṇu, and even declare that those who adore Viṣṇu are dear to themselves.¹ Śiva says to Pracetas, according to the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: "Dear to me is he who has resigned himself to Viṣṇu."² God is the sole source, support and termination of the world.³ The Purāṇas give to the highest deity, whatever it be called, all conceivable perfections. "Who can describe him who is not to be apprehended by the sense, who is the best of all things, the supreme soul, the self-existent, who is devoid of all the distinguishing characteristics of complexion, caste or the like, who is exempt from birth, vicissitude, death, decay or increase, who is always and alone, who exists everywhere and in whom all things here exist, and who is therefore named Vāsudeva?"⁴ The Sāṃkhya account of prakṛti and its development is accepted, with the reservation that prakṛti works in obedience to the will of the supreme spirit. Prakṛti is sometimes deified as the loving consort of the Father God. At the beginning of the third chapter in Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Maitreya asks Parāśara "how creative agency (sargādikartṛtvam) can be attributed to the pure Brahman," and the answer is given that the whole world is in him, even as heat is in fire.⁵ The Purāṇas admit the reality of the world and refer to the conception of māyā only to condemn it.⁶

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¹ Some of them trace their authorship to Viṣṇu. See Padma P., i. 62. 18.

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² Vāyu P., i. 11. 194, 202.

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³ The principal Purāṇas are eighteen in number. Viṣṇu, Bhāgavata (Śrīmad Bhāgavata more than the Devī Bhāgavata), Nāradīya, Garuḍa, Padma, Varāha are Vaiṣṇava in character, while Śiva, Liṅga, Skanda, Agni (or Vāyu according to other accounts), Matsya, Kūrma are Śaiva in their emphasis. The others, Brahma (or Saura), Brahmāṇḍa, Brahmavaivarta (which extols Kṛṣṇa), Mārkaṇḍeya, Bhaviṣya and Vāmana deal with Brahmā. They are also called respectively Sāttvika, Tāmasa and Rājasa. See Matsya P., 52. These are the Mahāpurāṇas, while there are other secondary ones called Upapurāṇas. Each Purāṇa is said to deal with sarga, pratisarga, vaṃśa, manvantara and vaṃśānucarita. The Purāṇas are later than the epics, and the earliest of them existed before the Christian era, though they were altered a good deal subsequently. They "must have existed at least as early as the beginning of the fifth century B.C., and this lower limit would be shifted 150 to 200 years earlier if a prior date is given to Āpastamba." (Pargiter: Ancient Indian Historical Tradition, p. 51). Chān. Up., iii. 4. 1; Śat. Brāh., xi. 5. 6. 8; Arthaśāstra, i. 5, among others, refer to the Purāṇas.

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¹ Cp. Viṣṇu P., i. 2. 2. Śaktayo yasya caikasya brahmaviṣṇuśivātmikāḥ (i. 9). See also Bhāgavata, i. 2. 23.

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² Bhagavantam vāsudevam prapannaḥ sa priyo hi me (iv. 24. 28). See also iv. 24. 30.

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³ Viṣṇu P., i. 2. 4.

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⁴ Ibid., i. 2. 10.

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⁵ i. 3.

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⁶ Padma P., vi. 263-70.

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In religion we find a clear departure from the Vedic worship, consisting of prayer and sacrifice, to image-worship and bhakti. The ethics of the Purāṇas is not different from the traditional one. It accepts the doctrine of karma and rebirth and the possibility of release through virtue and wisdom. Devotion to God, and not assent to dogma, is the essence of bhakti, which is said to be the most effective means of salvation in this Kali age.¹ Bhakti can move mountains; nothing is impossible for it.² Dhruva is advised by his mother to be good, pious, friendly and eager to do good to living creation.³ "Know him to be the devotee of Viṣṇu who never deviates from the duties of his caste, who looks with equal vision on friend and enemy, who takes nothing which is not his own, who hurts no being, and who is of unblemished mind."⁴ The society decays when property confers rank, wealth becomes the only basis of virtue, passion the sole bond of union between man and woman, falsehood the source of success in life, sex the sole means of enjoyment, when the outer trappings are mistaken for the inner spirit.⁵ Such a state of society calls for a redeemer. Mokṣa is equality with God (īśvarasādṛśyam).⁶ Rāmānuja's faith was much influenced by the Viṣṇu and the Bhāgavata Purāṇas.

Cites (13)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Sanskrit
Padmapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Matsyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra — Kauṭilya, Sanskrit
Chāndogyopaniṣad — Sanskrit
Śatapathabrāhmaṇa — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit
Vāyupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Tirukkuṟaḷ — Tiruvaḷḷuvar, Tamil
Pādmasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Ṛgvedasaṃhitā — Sanskrit
Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Tattvamuktākalāpa — Vedāntadeśika, Sanskrit