[Advaita-l] Advaita-The Vedanta.

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste.

Here are my observations.

I think the name 'vishiShTAdvaita' stands for 'chid-achid vishShTa
advaita'.  In other words, for Ramanuja Brahman is no doubt Advaitam but is
qualified too.  By what? By the chit ( sentient jiva-s) and the achit (the
inert world of objects).  Brahman's body is constituted by these two.
While in Advaita, Brahman is kevala/shuddha Advaita, it is as above for
Ramanuja.

Regarding this point in their system:

//4. Brahman is not attributeless – He is, in fact, ananta kalyaana guna
aashraya – infinite auspicious qualities. Nirguna is interpreted as
doshaguna rahitam.//

I would say that all the ananta kalyAna guNa-s are either jiva or jagat
specific and hence cannot truly be stated to be Brahman's svarUpa niShTha.
Advaita too admits of such gunas but as a taTastha lakShaNa of Brahman.
Only those guNas that can stand alone, without the need to be tagged to
either the jiva or the jagat, can be legitimately called Brahman's true
nature.  And that will be satyam, jnAnam and anantam. That school will not
accept this but this is what would be amenable to vichAra.

regards
subbu

On Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 10:49 PM, kuntimaddi sadananda <
kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Sunilji -PraNAms.
> Here is my understanding.
> The philosophy starts with the emphaisis on visheShaNa- visheshya
> sambandha.
> 1. There are no objects in the universe without attributes.
> 2. The attributes and the object are inseparable and are intrinsic with
> each other.
> 3. Consciousness is also an attribute for both jiiva and Iswara.- They
> separate the self-conscious vs object-conscious - dharmi and dharma jnaana.
> 4. Brahman is not attributeless – He is, in fact, ananta kalyaana guna
> aashraya – infinite auspicious qualities. Nirguna is interpreted as
> doshaguna rahitam.
> 5. Jiiva is anupramaaNa – suukshma is interpreted as very small.
> 6. In the analysis of attributes, they consider multiple jiivas and and
> inert jagat as part of his virat shariira as in 11th ch. of Gita. Thus is
> oneness that pervades as the parama aatma and at the same time each
> individual component is different like organs in the body.
> 7. There are nitya mukta jiivas like mahalakshmi, vishvak sena etc.
> 8. Interestingly karmayoga is considered as swadharma and jnaana yoga as
> paradharma by Ramanuja.
> Since it is visheshaNa sahita advaita (virat swaruupa) the philosophy is
> called vishiShTa advaita.
> I should stop with this since the emphasis is more on adviata than
> vishiShTaadvaita.
> Hari Om!
> Sadananda
>