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5.Pre-Sankara Philosophy B

The document outlines the development of Vedanta philosophy, particularly focusing on Gaudapada's contributions to Pure Monism and Absolute Idealism, influenced by Buddhist thought. It discusses the nature of the Atman, the unreality of the jiva and the world, and the concept of Ajativada, which posits that the world is merely an appearance. Additionally, it introduces the Prasthana Trayi texts, which are essential for understanding Vedanta, and highlights the systematic approach of the Brahma Sutra in articulating the philosophy of the Upanishads.

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19 views13 pages

5.Pre-Sankara Philosophy B

The document outlines the development of Vedanta philosophy, particularly focusing on Gaudapada's contributions to Pure Monism and Absolute Idealism, influenced by Buddhist thought. It discusses the nature of the Atman, the unreality of the jiva and the world, and the concept of Ajativada, which posits that the world is merely an appearance. Additionally, it introduces the Prasthana Trayi texts, which are essential for understanding Vedanta, and highlights the systematic approach of the Brahma Sutra in articulating the philosophy of the Upanishads.

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nikhilnemnani
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Vedanta Philosophy

Pre-Sankara Philosophy
Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• Gaudapada developed his philosophy of Pure Monism or Absolute Idealism in his


Māṇdukya Karika.

• He was profoundly influenced by the Buddhist philosophy Nagarjuna (200 A.D.).

• There are four stages of the Atman: Waking condition, dream state, dreamless
sleep and non-dual intuitive self.

• The jiva is not an ontological reality. It has empirical reality.


Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• It sleeps under the influence of beginningless Maya or cosmic nescience and belive
itself to be real.

• The Jiva is an unreal and world is also false appearance.

• Brahman or Atman which is one, eternal , non-dual, pure consciousness.

• Three degrees of truth: ontological reality (Paramartha satya), empirical truth


(saṃvṛrti satya) and illusory knowledge (kalpitasamvrti).
Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

•Gaudapada argues that empirical objects are the subjective creations of the mind.

• Cognitions are objectless, uncaused and illusory.

•Neither cognitions are produce, nor are objects produced.

• There is no difference between objects of waking perceptions and those of dream-


cognitions.
Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• Ajativada (Doctrine of No-origination)

Negatively, it means that the world, being only an appearance, is in fact never
created. Positively, it means that the absolute, being self-existent, is never created.

• Gaudapada examines the various theories of creation and rejects them all.
Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• Reality as Pure Consciousness

• Existence of external objects.

• Reality is the Pure Self which is Pure Consciousness and which is at the
background of everything.

• Just as in darkness, a rope is imagined to be a snake, similarly the Self is imagined


to be individual subjects, mental states and external objects. And just as when the
rope is known, the imagined snake vanishes similarly when the non-dual atman is
realized, the subject-object duality vanishes at once.
Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• Reality as Pure Consciousness

• Those who see the creation of the individual self or of the external object see the
foot-prints of birds in the sky.

• He says that just as a moving fire-brand appears as straight or curved, similarly


consciousness, when it moves, appears as the subject-object duality.

• God is eternally fulfilled and so cannot have any desire.

•The cosmic consciousness produces all jivas or individual souls.


Gaudapāda (600 A.D.)

• Brahman is unconditioned and conditioned.

• God is Brahman associated with Maya. He imagines the multiple world and
souls by his own power of Maya.
Prasthana Trayi

•The texts comprising the Prasthana Trayi are the Upanishads, the Bhagavadgita and
the Brahma Sutra.
•The Upanishads are the sruti prasthana, the revealed texts (sruti - that which is
heard)
•The Bhagavadgita is the smriti prasthana, composed by sages based on their
understanding of the Vedas (smriti - that which is remembered).
•The Brahma Sutra is the nyaya prasthana, the logical text that sets forth the
philosophy systematically (nyaya - logic/order)
•No study of Vedanta is considered complete without a close examination of the
Prasthana Trayi.
•The systematic treaties is written in short aphorisms called Sutras.

• The maximum of thought is compressed into these sutras in as few word as


possible.

• Sutra should be concise and unambiguous, give the essence of the arguments on a
topic but at the same time deal with all aspects of the question, be free from
repetition and faultless.

•Sutra gave rise of various kind of literary writings like Vakyas, Vrttis, Karikas and
Bhasyas, each of them being more and more elaborate than the previous ones.
Brahma-Sutra
•The Upanisads do not contain any ready-made consistent system of thought.

• Badarayana tried to systematize the philosophy of the Upanisads.

• Sankara: Monism
• Ramanuja: Visistadvaita or qualified monism
• Nimbarka: Bhedabhedavada or theory of difference and non-difference
• Madhva: Dualism
• Vallabha: Suddhadvaitavada
Brahma-Sutra

Athato Brahmajijnasa

Now, therefore, the enquiry into Brahman

Atha: now, then, afterwards; Atah: therefore; Brahmajijnasa: a desire for the
knowledge of Brahman (the enquiry into the real nature of Brahman).
Brahma-Sutra
•Atha i.e., after the attainment of certain preliminary qualifications such as the four
means of salvation.
•(1) Nitya-anitya-vastuviveka (discrimination between the eternal and the non-
eternal)
•(2)Ihamutrarthaphalabhogaviraga (in difference to the enjoyment in this life or in
heaven, and of the fruits of one’s actions)
•(3) Shatsampat (Sama—control of mind, Dama—control of the external senses,
Uparati—cessation from worldly enjoyments or not thinking of objects of senses or
discontinuance of religious ceremonies, Titiksha—endurance of pleasure and pain,
heat and cold, Sraddha—faith in the words of the preceptor and of the Upanishads
and Samadhana—deep concentration)
• (4) Mumukshutva (desire for liberation).
•

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