Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c11.s16.2

c11.s16.2

Aspiring to establish the seventh philosophical system, Ramavatar Sharma wrote the whole text including the aphorisms, *kārikās*, *bhāṣya* and *vārttikas* — all by himself. He accepts a reality that is Supreme Consciousness, but it is not Absolute, it is *sākṣī* (observer) and the world is observed by it. The observer and the object make one indivisible unity. He refutes the theory of *vivarta* (unreal effect), because the world to him is neither negated nor dissolved. Refuting the world-view of the rest of the philosophies, the author of *Paramārthadarśanam* presents his own system and conceptual framework with new definitions of *jīva*, *ātman* and *viśva* (world). He propounds the theory of Dehāntaravāda — accepting an inherent relationship between body and soul — but his propositions are neither akin to the Cārvāka philosophy nor Marxism, because he proposes distinct theories of a *viśvātmakacaitanya* (Universal Consciousness) and Viśvavaicitryavāda (queerness of the world). A *jīva* is like a bubble on the vast sea of the Universal Consciousness. The Universal Consciousness is both knowable and unknowable. It partially reflects itself in the limited psyche of the individual soul.