[Advaita-l] Advaita and other philosophies

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

[This is a combined reply to two seperate posts]

subu wrote:

>
> Did Dwaitha or any or philosophy existed before Advaitha. I Presume Advaitha
> must have contended Dvaitha thats why it is a A-Dvaitha.

That's not the reason.  Duality is a given.  It is the "natural" state of
the maya-befuddled person.  Take the Vedic dictum tat tvam asi (you are
that.)  "tat" and "tvam" are known in advance.  Advaita vedantas'
contribution is "asi"  This is the link that makes the two terms not-two.

Dvaita in the term Dvaita Vedanta has an entirely different meaning.


> If other phil
> existed where/who are their followers ( I clearly understand that Ramanuja
> and Madvacharya Phil are later to HH Sri Sankara. SO my question doesnot
> include the works of Ramanuja and Madvacharya )
>

There is evidence that there were non-advaitic strains of Vedanta before
Shankaracharya but if it is not very clear if they have anything to do
with the darshans of the present day.  For instance some fragments of
bhashyas on Gita and Brahmasutras by one Bhaskara Mishra survive.  He was
evidently a Vaishnava and advocated bhedabhedavada but I don't think he
was a Shrivaishnava and in any case later exponents of that tradition took
any notice of him.

We can also independently confirm some figures mentioned in Shrivaishnava
literature as forerunners of Ramanuja e.g. Bodhayana (not the sutrakara)
so Vishishtadvaita can make some claim to antiquity.  I don't think Dvaita
can do so.

> The philosphies by Madwacharya  and Ramanuja; how well are these debated
> before acceptance. Note :People following is not an acceptance as follower
> Ramanuja/Madvacharya/HH-Sri-Sankara dosnot mean they understood the
> philosophy. In the case of HH Jagadguru Sri Sankara we are all aware(Books)
> of the debates he won for Advaitha.
>

N.Seshan wrote:

> I hav been seeing a lot of advaita- dvaita arguments/counters appearing
> and this might have been a full fledged war sometime back. I would like to
> know whether there has been a similar voluminous exchange btwn the
> advaitin-vishistadvaitins and dvaita-vishistadvaitins. Seems that the
> dvaita school was by far the most powerful opponent to advaita. SInce
> dvaita has differed with vishistadvaita, the force of the attack shud hav
> been equally strong, but I cant seem to find any material on that... is
> my assumption wrong?

The Vaishnava schools have mostly spent their energy on attacking us
rather than each other.  Which is really a back-handed compliment to us
isn't it?


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/