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THE TRADITIONAL CONCEPT OF VISHISTA-ADVAITA VEDANTA AND THIS REDEFINED VERSION

In this Blog post I draw the attention of readers to the traditional version of Vishista-advaita Vedanta ascribed to Ramanuja and leave it to the readers to decide how this conceptions described here supports or differs from it.

 

THE TRADITIONAL CONCEPT OF VISHISTA-ADVAITA VEDANTA

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishishtadvaita summarises this as follows. This today, the 14 May 2021, is the first time that I have read it (I had only heard that before that it was not perfectly non-dual) to try and find the common ground from my self-realised conception to is ascribed to Ramanuja.

Vishishtadvaita (IAST Viśiṣṭādvaita; Sanskrit: विशिष्टाद्वैत) is one of the most popular schools of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Vedanta literally means the end of the Vedas. VishishtAdvaita (literally "Advaita with uniqueness; qualifications") is a non-dualistic school of Vedanta philosophy. It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity. It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism. It is a school of Vedanta philosophy which believes in all diversity subsuming to an underlying unity.

Ramanuja, the 11–12th century philosopher and the main proponent of Vishishtadvaita philosophy contends that the Prasthanatrayi ("The three courses"), namely the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Brahma Sutras are to be interpreted in a way that shows this unity in diversity, for any other way would violate their consistency. Vedanta Desika defines Vishishtadvaita using the statement, Asesha Chit-Achit Prakaaram Brahmaikameva Tatvam: Brahman, as qualified by the sentient and insentient modes (or attributes), is the only reality.

The conception of this author of what constitutes Vishista-Advaita Vedanta is summarise in the following enunciation: The philosophy of the Conservative Libertarian Party is security for liberty and liberty for security. This is the essence of living. We need to be very careful indeed in making our decision on actions that we should take every moment of life by a thorough understanding of the laws of Nature, and taking opportunities to better ourselves materially and spiritually through the passage of time in a risk-averse attitude that conserves and builds the material and spiritual 'house' that we live in. This is the meaning of Environmental Sustainability. One step at a time and see which way the wind blows before jumping on to the next step to try and enhance one's prospects for self-preservation and the appropriate development of the family and the wider society that we are governed by to regulate and control our human activities. Being libertarian per se is not the objective of the personal or communal struggle. One cannot isolate oneself from wider humanity, for we cannot each individually do all of the things that we need to feed, clothe, house, study and develop our knowledge which is the fundamental basis of actions individually and collectively. We need like-minded people according to the saying birds of a feather flock together to create a Party of political activists who would argue their case and take part in democracy to influence changes to the society in a peaceful and totally non-violent manner. by persuasion of ones principles and belief-led mission to better ourselves in our mental development and better our chances of survival in a tough Nature that restricts our abilities to act selfishly and in greed for gathering in the natural resources for our own consumption from the Planet that we inhabit. This is the ethos of Conservative Libertarianism, and it is a secular conception, notwithstanding that on the balance of probability God is the Creator of the universe and Nature has a built-in Gaia mechanism of checks and balances that carves the path to the emergence of new races and species of life forms on Earth. It is therefore imperative that we focus only on taking the right decisions ourselves without resort to a higher authority, be that human of spiritual in being a Conservative Libertarian.

So how is liberty attained? To strive for liberty in the old philosophy of Hindus who enlightened the people to the concept of mukti or moksha requires not knowledge at its peak. This knowledge is acquired by knowing the truth at its ultimate manifestation.

Intelligence needs to be relinquished to the idea that the path of truth steadfastly adhered to develops the mind to be able to operate the actions that the person undertakes at the Mahatman level of awareness with the simultaneous generation of knowledge of the material world and its relationship to the Nature of Reality.

Knowledge by itself is therefore not power; truth path leads to the automatic nonchalant, spontaneous and unpremeditated actions in the understanding that everything is there happening for a reason. One needs to assimilate these factual information as one goes forwards in time and work on the criteria that things happen for a reason because everything is pre-ordained and pre-orchestrated in the universe. This is the basis of Vishista-Advaita Vedanta.

The power so attained is all non-violent but deals with legal affairs of humanity on the revealed eternal law that Truth prevails, or Satyamev Jayate from the Upanishads. The path is hard to begin with but the development of the mind can only proceed from one moment to the next as truth is revealed to a yogi, and the yoga that this process entails is called satya-advaita yoga or the yoga of truth-accommodation, practiced every moment that one lives, by surrendering the mind to the Supermind as Om, if nothing beyond Om. There is something beyond Om but it need not concern us except to appreciate that It is the Power that makes the universe move and this truth is what one surrenders to ultimately.

If one lives another day all that one should be concerned with is how to do what to survive another moment of that day in liberty, that is mukti. Cravings to all objectives are sacrificed, wealth, ambitions to score goals, targets, missions, and inf act all the attachments that one operating to the somatic mind that is body associated in an interrelationship are gone from ones considerations.

It is only truth that leads to liberation and liberty in survival and survival in liberty are interrelated.

When one places this idea at the forefront of one’s raison detre, one spends lavishly until one is penniless for the need for mukti is paramount to the human condition. People look for means to attain it like fighting for material possessions and living to democracy, but even in the sternest of Police States, a libertarian survives in liberty because he or she is following the truth-accommodation path in which he accepts that the status quo is justice as far as it will go every moment of the time. With that conception, one lives on in liberty and in the end truth is shown to have prevailed.

This kind of philosophy is the dharma of a person, and is the sanatan dharma in the sense that it protects the dharma and the dharmi, in other words, this dharma rakshati rakshita. There is no other dharma that does this for a person, in releasing him from bondages both physical and mental, so that there is ultimately no disorders that limit one’s movements. It is nirvana in the sense that one lives in total contentment with oneself and with one’s circumstances and conditions internal and external.

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