With this posting, we will conclude refuting Advaita in VEdArtha Sangraha.
The Advaita's Eka-jIva-vAdam is also untenable. Advaita holds that only one body (sarIram) is having the Brahman who has got bewildered by avidyA and has wrongly identified himself as jIva. The Brahman is dreaming and that dream (illusion) is jagath. In that dream, the Brahman sees various animated bodies, which are without jIva. The body in which the Brahman is present and dreaming is the only body with jIva (which is the avidyA-covered-brahman). This is the Eka-jIva-vAdam of Advaita.
Further to "explain" this, the Advaita gives an example -
"A person dreams. He sees various persons and things in the dream. Those characters in the dream are only illusion and the bodies of them who he sees in dreams are without soul. Only he who dreams is the reality. When he wakes up, he realizes this".By telling this, Advaita stresses that "Brahma Satyam Jagath mithyA" "Brahman is the truth and the universe is falsehood-illusion".
Someone questions Advaita "Which is that body having soul?" Advaita escapes by telling "That body cannot be pointed out".
"Ekasmin SarIrasya thathra jIvasathbhAvasya
cha na kaschidviSEsha: |
asmAkam thu swapnE drushtuSSarIrasya
thasminnAthma-sadbhAvasya cha prabOdha-vElAyAmabAdhithathvAth,
anyEshAm SarIrANAm thathgatha-jIvAnAm
cha bAdhithathvAth thE
sarvE mithyAbhUthA: swaSarIramEkam thasmin
jIvabhAvaScha paramArtha:
ithi viSEsha:"
Bhagavath Ramanuja Yatiraja criticizes the above dogma of Advaita as follows:
Advaita has argued that only the Brahman
is truth (reality) and the universe (all chit and achit entities) is mere
illusion.
In other words, Advaita has said that
the universe is only because of avidyA-sambandam with Brahman. Just like
a person who wakes up, realizes that all he saw in his dream are mere illusion,
the abhEda-tatva-jgnyAna leads to the realization that everything except
the Brahman is unreal. Only he who woke up is real. Similarly, the Brahman
who wakes up because of abhEda-tatva-jgnyAna alone is real. The universe
is thus unreal. This dogma and explanation of advaita is not only untenable
but also the dogma itself is not suitable for advaita. The explanation
follows:
Just like the animated bodies that appear
in the dream of Brahman vanishes on its waking up, the body in which the
Brahman got bewildered, as jIva has to
vanish and also the jIva. This is because, in advaita, the body of dreaming
Brahman and the jIva-bewilderment of Brahman is also unreal. Otherwise,
their Eka-jIva-vAdam loses validity and becomes futile. Therefore, advaita's
imagination of "only one body with soul and all other bodies without soul"
is not fit to be told before scholars.
In the case of Visishtadvaita, the universe is real. Therefore, the dreaming jIvAthman's body and the jIvAthman (soul) are real even after the waking up of the jIvAthman. Therefore, the Eka-jIva-vAdam of advaita is contradictory to its own key points.
"SonyamEva thathvam" ithi vAkyEna thasyApi
bAdhithatvAth idam bhrAnthimUlam
vAkyam ithi chEth, "sath advithIyam brahma"
ithi
vAkyamapi bhrAnthimUlamithi thvayaivOktham
|
The advaita has attempted to establish "nirviSEsha chin mAthram Brahma" from the SAstra - VEda which is also an illusion for them.According to advaita, the SAstra imparts the knowledge that the only reality is Brahman and makes the entire universe as illusion-unreal. Also, Advaita says that the nirviSEsha chin mAthram Brahma is not rejected by another vAdam. Very unfortunately for Advaita, the madyamika-bowdhda has propounded "SonyamEva thathvam". The madyamika-bowdhda has not accepted even this nirviSEsha chin mAthram Brahma and he tells that nothing is reality.
To refute this madyamika-bowdhda-vAdam, advaita says that the mAdyamika-bowdhda's words are only because of "bhranthi" - utter confusion and bewilderment and they do not have a basis.
Advaita too has to be now grouped in bowdhda because are they not telling the SAstra also to be unreal? According to them, the SAstra is also because of bhranthi. Then, how is it possible for advaita to establish nirviSEsha Chin mAthram Brahma through SAstra? If they accept the bhrAnti-mUla-SAstra to establish nirviSEsha Chin mAthram Brahma, then the mAdyamika-bowdhda's words, which are also bhrAnti-mUlam reject Advaita and establishes "SonyamEva thathvam". The "SonyamEva thathvam" cannot be rejected by advaita because mAdyamika-bowdhda has rejected everything. Therefore advaita-vAda totally loses validity.
Bhagavath Ramanuja concluded this discussion by stating Vada-anAdhikAra-varNana for Advaitins.
'sarva-SUnyavAdina: brahama-vyathiriktha-vasthu-mithyAthva-vAdinascha,
swapaksha sAdhana-pramANa-pAramArthyAnabhyupagamEna
abhiyuktai: vAdAnadhikAra
Eva prathipAditha:
"SarvadA sadupAyAnAm vAdamArga: pravarthathE
|
adhikArOanupAyathvAth na vAdE SUnyavAdina:
||"
ithi'
The mAdyamika-bowdhda and the advaitins have no right in doing SAstra-vichAram and vAdam. The mAdyamika-bowdhda has told that everything is unreal. The advaitins told that everything is unreal except the nirviSEsha chin mAthram brahma. Both have not accepted the SAstra-VEda as real. Therefore, the bowdhda and advaitins have no right to participate in debates. Both are not vaidikas.
Bhagavath Ramanuja finishes this debate and conclusively establishes that the universe is real. The Advaita of SrI Adi Sankara is thus clearly proved to be against the VEda and is untenable. Thus the SAnkara-pUrva-pAksham is totally refuted and rejected.
In the next posting, we will briefly see
the pUrva-pAkshams of BhAskara and Yadava-prAkAsa before we take up the
second part of VEdArtha Sangraha, which is "swa-matha-vistAram".
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