In Vedanta philosophy (uttara mimamsa), Sri Adi Sankara, Sri Ramanuja and Sri Madhvacharya can be identified with the philosophies of Advita (pure monoism), Visishtadvita (qualified-monoism) and Dwaita (dualism) resp. In broad terms, the philosopher's approach to the Truth can be stated as follows :
Adi Sankara : Knowing the Supreme by overcoming the ignorance (or the veil of maya), cause I am HE.
Ramanuja : Loving the Supreme, cause I am a part of HIS existence, just like how body is a part of our existence and we all love our bodies.
Madvacharya : Serving the Supreme, cause we are related to HIM just like how a servant is related to his master.
Vedanta also talks about three ways we can know the Truth. They are Jnana Yoga, Bakthi Yoga and Karma Yoga. Broadly, these ways can be stated as follows :
Jnana Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant discrimination.
Bakthi Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant Love.
Karma Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant selfless action.
We can now see how these yogas closely correspond with the approach of the philosophers (discrimination, love and selfless action correspond with the acts of knowing, loving and serving respectively). We can also find these pattern in day to day life. Madhvas closely stick on to rituals, Vishnavites to Bakthi (adhering intensely to divya prabandam) and Shivites focus on learning Vedas. Since all these approaches lead to the Truth as Vedanta says, theoretically there shoudn't be any notion of superiority at least among these creeds. But, I hardly meet such balanced people.
Adi Sankara : Knowing the Supreme by overcoming the ignorance (or the veil of maya), cause I am HE.
Ramanuja : Loving the Supreme, cause I am a part of HIS existence, just like how body is a part of our existence and we all love our bodies.
Madvacharya : Serving the Supreme, cause we are related to HIM just like how a servant is related to his master.
Vedanta also talks about three ways we can know the Truth. They are Jnana Yoga, Bakthi Yoga and Karma Yoga. Broadly, these ways can be stated as follows :
Jnana Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant discrimination.
Bakthi Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant Love.
Karma Yoga : Way to the Truth through constant selfless action.
We can now see how these yogas closely correspond with the approach of the philosophers (discrimination, love and selfless action correspond with the acts of knowing, loving and serving respectively). We can also find these pattern in day to day life. Madhvas closely stick on to rituals, Vishnavites to Bakthi (adhering intensely to divya prabandam) and Shivites focus on learning Vedas. Since all these approaches lead to the Truth as Vedanta says, theoretically there shoudn't be any notion of superiority at least among these creeds. But, I hardly meet such balanced people.
16 comments:
"But, I hardly meet such balanced people."
Idhaan fact:)
Even I have heard about prejudices between sub sects. In fact, shaivism was seen as a separate religion by shaivites and vaishnavites. So much so, there are still vaishnavite people who don't even go to pillayar temple.
yeah..Y can't people follow all the three ways to the Supreme?? or do they actually do?? i doubt it..
I actually gotto know more abt religion from this post than I learnt all thru my life
kasthuri,
Here are more threes-
the prasthanatraya of vedanatha, the Ramatraya( PARASURAMA, SRIRAMA AND BALARAMA), RAMAANUJATRAYA(LAKSHMANA, KRISHNA AND SWAMI RAMANUJA), RAHASYATRTAYA( MANTRARAJA, MANTRARATNA AND CHARAMA SHLOKA), DHAAMATRAYA( VAIKUNTHAM, KSHEERABDHI AND RAVIMANDALA), SO ON AND SO FORTH.
By the way,I would like to clarify here that AdiSankara did not establish saivism. He proclaimed the unity and equality of the 6 religions or shanmathas, viz, GAANAPATHYAM, KAUMAARAM, SAURAM, SAIVAM, SAAKTAM AND VAISHNAVAM. TO label the great Sankara as a saivite does not seem proper to me.
Kasthuri, I hope to answer certain questions here with your permission.
Mr.Swami,
I had been off the net yesterday but took time off to think about your questions. I have answers to them but I feel that I cannot do justice to the Gita in this comments section. I therefore cordially invite you to my blog to dal with the issues raised by you. I will be,posting a detailed refutation of several objections raised against the valididty, relevance and internal consistency of the Gita on the 4th of august. I request you to check it out and if your doubts persist, comment accordingly. This is Narayana's will.
TJ,
I happen to be a Vaishnavaite but I do go to pillayaar kovil, Mookaambika temple. I think the attituude of certain Vaishnavas is not to be blamed entirely as they are adopting the doctrine of ANANYAGATHI OR NO OTHER REFUGE EXCEPT NARAYANA. I too accept this view of Narayana but address all hindu deities as Narayana as HE is the indweller of all divine manifestations.
Krishna,
following one way is difficult, following all three might not practically possible.
That was a verygood post! I was planning to take it up later this week.[Had dealt in short in comments on Thennavan's post on God], u took it out of my mouth, and put it better that what i wud have :)
Jnana cannot be attained without persuing Karma with bakthi.
When we say shankara won over Mandana misra and karma marga, it is actually meant that he won over the concept that 'only karmayoga is enuf'.
Anand i bow to your knowledge. Also i understand u meant TT_giant in ur post when u said TJ :D
Even i get confused which is my comment, we have TT, TJ, and Swami posting comments here. ;)
kasthuri,
again with your permission
TJ
right you are, I didn't see that it was tt-giant. sorry about that.
nice post, as ioiio said i learnt more bout religion from ur posts then my entire life!!
my great gran father lived in mylapores sanadhi theru but never stepped into the kapleeshwar temple, he was a vaishnavites,
now we don follow such rules at home
@ prabhu : Thanks for visiting.
@ tt_giant : That's true...there are several people like that. I don't want to criticize them. If they follow their belief without affecting others, that should be fine.
@ swami : Thanks da...
@ krishna : I think one has to follow all the three in the beginning. Later, there will be a point where they have to choose which is the better method that will make them realize their goal. But, in the beginning it is better have a wide spread experience in all the three yogas + raja yoga.
@ ioiio : Thank you so much for the encouragement. I am just sharing some of the things I find them nice.
if it makes sense...yeh its good.
@ anand : wow...good trios. Yes Shankara cannot be branded as Shaivite per se. How can we ever confine such a great man to a sect who realized god as both form and formless ?
Yes Anand, you can answer questions addressed to you.
@ tj : Thanks man...Yes, It is also my belief that Adi Shankara (and other too) would have recogonnized the identity in all the yogas. One more thanks for parting with your knowledge.
@ vatsan : It is very nice of you to leave such comment which encourages me to share the thoughts. As I mentioned earlier I am just sharing some nice things that I notice. While all the three yogas are required for a normal person, later he has to stick on to some faith. Probably it is that our folks were in the second stage. It is okay as long as they don't downplay other beliefs. I belive Truth is multisided.
"But, I hardly meet such balanced people." - so true.
On the positive side, I do see people grow out of their imbalances; I guess everyone must practice that.
The last line sums it up!
Kasthuri: WOW! Another brilliant post that sums up such truths in a succint manner.
Anand: Bow down to thee! Hadn't much of a clue about what you mentioned, but i look forward to your post on aug 4.
Really interesting! A detailed piece of work!
Thank you for what must have been a great deal of effort.
http://r2000.blogspot.com
Kasthuri,
True Indeed ! - but i would go one step more and say, meeting 'balanced people' of any kind is tough :P
dear Kasthuri,
why no posts lately?
Ranj: welcome to dwaaraka!
@ satya : Isn't the world a mirror image of an induvidual ? just kidding :-)
@ lavanya : That's how the world is...
@ chakra : Thanks for visiting.
@ ranj : Thank you too. Good to see that my thoughts matches with others.
@ alex : Actually I would say there are lotsa such analogies (as Anand pointed out some). I should thank you for the encouragement. I am just posting whatever that appeals to me as nice.
@ Arvind : I guess balance is the one thing that everybody is trying to get, in one form or the other. Just as you pointed out, balanced person is as difficult to get like a legitimate guru.
@ Anand : Finally got back to the bussiness of blogging. Thanks.
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