Darśana / Theistic Vedānta

Theistic Vedānta (वेदान्त)

Three readings of one book. The book is the Brahma Sūtra. Śaṅkara (शङ्कर), Rāmānuja (रामानुज), and Madhva (मध्व) each wrote a commentary, and each commentary decides what the same sūtras, and the same Upaniṣad sentences, are about. This page sets the three decisions beside each other. None of the three commentaries is sat here. Śaṅkara's own verses are a different shelf, the Upadeśasāhasrī. Rāmānuja's Śrībhāṣya (श्रीभाष्य) and Madhva's bhāṣya are named and not opened.

The sūtra shelf on this library follows the count of 545, the count of Rāmānuja's commentary. Śaṅkara's count is 555. That note already stands on the Brahma Sūtra page. This primer does not renumber either book.

Advaita (अद्वैत)

Śaṅkara's reading is non-dual. Brahman is without a second. The self is that Brahman. Difference, the you and the that as two things, is accounted for as adhyāsa (अध्यास), superimposition: a name and a form laid onto what is not two. The teaching aims at the knowledge that removes the laying-on. When the sentence tat tvam asi is heard in this reading, the you and the that are one reality, and the grammar of two words is the teaching's concession to a listener who arrived with two. Liberation is that knowledge. A second person is not left over to be saved by a lord who remains other.

The Upaniṣads this shelf has sat, and Śaṅkara's verses, are the places a reader meets this reading in the author's own words. The bhāṣya on the sūtras is the long argument. It is not copied here.

Viśiṣṭādvaita (विशिष्टाद्वैत)

Rāmānuja's reading is qualified non-dualism. Brahman is Nārāyaṇa (नारायण), with qualities, the inner ruler. Souls, cit (चित्), and the world, acit (अचित्), are real. They are his body. The relation he teaches is the relation of self and body: the body is not a second independent thing, and the body is not the same thing as the self. Non-dual, in this reading, means there is no reality that stands free of Brahman. Qualified means Brahman is qualified by the souls and the world that make up that body. The devotee remains a person. The person is inseparable from the lord and is not dissolved into an attributeless absolute.

Heard this way, tat tvam asi speaks one thing under two modes. The you is the self whose inner ruler is Brahman. The identity is an identity of reference, the way a sentence can say that the body and the person are one subject and still keep body and person distinct. The path the Śrīvaiṣṇava tradition draws from him is śaraṇāgati (शरणागति), taking refuge. This page names the path. It does not write the rite. The Śrībhāṣya is the commentary. The sūtra count of 545 is its count. The commentary itself is not sat.

Dvaita (द्वैत)

Madhva's reading keeps difference real. Viṣṇu is independent, svatantra (स्वतन्त्र). Everything else is dependent, paratantra (परतन्त्र). Dependence is not identity. The world is not an appearance laid over a secondless Brahman, and the soul is not a mode of God's body in Rāmānuja's sense. God and the soul are two, permanently.

He teaches five differences, the pañca-bheda (पञ्चभेद), as always real. Between God and the soul. Between God and matter. Between one soul and another. Between soul and matter. Between one material thing and another. He also grades souls. Some are fit for release. Some remain in the round. Some he calls turned toward darkness. That grading is his doctrine. This page reports it and does not teach it as a judgment on any person.

His cut of the great sentence is the famous disagreement. Where the Chāndogya sitting sits tat tvam asi, that you are, a Madhva reading divides the sounds so that they deny the identity, a-tat tvam asi, you are not that. The shelf keeps the sentence it sat. His commentary is a different cut of the same syllables, and it is not sat here. His bhāṣya on the Brahma Sūtra is named the same way.

The three, side by side

The names

नेपालीमा

एउटै ब्रह्मसूत्रलाई शङ्कर, रामानुज र मध्वले तीन किसिमले पढेका छन्। तीनैको भाष्य यहाँ समावेश गरिएको छैन। शङ्करको आफ्नै पद्य उपदेशसाहस्रीमा छ। अद्वैतमा ब्रह्मन् दोस्रो नभएको एउटै हो, आत्मा त्यही हो, र फरक अध्यास हो। विशिष्टाद्वैतमा ब्रह्मन् नारायण हुन्। चित् भनिने जीव र अचित् भनिने जगत् उहाँको शरीर हुन्। शरीर र आत्मा छुट्टिँदैनन्, र एउटै पनि होइनन्। शरणागतिको नाम मात्र लिइन्छ, विधि लेखिँदैन।

द्वैतमा विष्णु स्वतन्त्र हुन्। अरू सबै परतन्त्र हुन्। पाँच भेद सधैँ रहने भनिन्छन्: ईश्वर र जीवबीच, ईश्वर र जडबीच, जीव र जीवबीच, जीव र जडबीच, जड र जडबीच। मध्वले जीवलाई पनि तहमा राख्छन्। त्यो उहाँको मत हो। यो पृष्ठले त्यसलाई कसैमाथिको फैसलाका रूपमा सिकाउँदैन। छान्दोग्य खण्डमा तत्त्वमसि «त्यो तिमी हौ» भनेर प्रस्तुत गरिएको छ। मध्वको पदच्छेद (शब्द-विभाजन)ले त्यसलाई अस्वीकार गर्छ। त्यो पदच्छेद यहाँ प्रस्तुत गरिएको छैन। यहाँ सूत्रको गन्ती ५४५ छ, जुन रामानुजको गन्ती हो। शङ्करको गन्ती ५५५ हो।

Where it sits

The sūtras are the Brahma Sūtra. Śaṅkara's verses are the Upadeśasāhasrī. The sentence all three cut differently is Chāndogya 6.8.7. The poem all three read is the Gītā. An upaniṣad that already says one god, hidden, and without qualities, is the Śvetāśvatara. The twenty-six sat shelves stay the reading order. This page is the comparison beside them.