Sankaracharya’s Mayavad versus Ramanujacharya’s Visistadvaita vad
Sankaracarya ‘s doctrine of Maya-vad is also called Vivarta-vad and is different from Vedic concept of Parinam-vad and is an impersonal description of the Supreme being ..
Vedic concept Parinamvad says that Supreme being Brahman is transformed into this material world and has been mentioned by Vyasa deva .
Sankaracharya , however , said that Vyasa deva was wrong and material world is false without any real existence and though Brahman is the real thing it is devoid of any variety .It is something impersonal .He said Brahma Satya , Jagat Mithya > which means only Brahman is real and material world is false .He also gave example of mirage where water seems to exist but actually nothing is found there .Another example was snake and the rope . In darkness what we mistakenly think to be a snake is actually a rope .Also mother of pearl appears to be silver while actually it is not .These are called Bhrama or illusion (Maya) , and according to Sankar material world is similarly illusory in nature .Sankar’s doctrine is also called Kevaladvaita-Vad
Ramanajucharya , however said Brahman is real and material world is not false but not really real . Material world is temporary but Brahman is eternal or NITYA .An example will clear up the matter . A reflection of an object may not be called real, as it cannot be touched, yet we cannot deny its existence altogether as it can be seen . But the reflection is temporary because if the real object goes away from the mirror the reflection vanishes. Similarly material world is a reflection of Brahman .
Ramanuja also said there may not be water in the mirage , but water definitely exists somewhere, otherwise we could not have mistaken the mirage to be water .. Similarly, rope may not be the snake but snake must be somewhere, as otherwise rope could not have been mistaken for the snake .
In this way Ramanuja established by 21 arguments that world is actually a reflection of Brahman or the Supreme being and is not illusory or Maya .as propounded by Sankar .Since we see so much variety in this material world , so Brahman must be full of endless varieties .He thus established that Brahman is not something inert but a person with endless varieties . This description of Personal feature of The Lord is known as Visitadvaita-Vad and is the doctrine of Sri Sampradaya ( a Vaisnava sect) of which Ramanuja was an acharya or a proponent .
The question now arises why then Sankaracharya who is considered to be an incarnation of Lord Siva misguided people by his wrongful doctrine? .
To understand the matter, in its real perspective , we have to go back to the time of Lord Buddha when Kali Yuga had just started .
With the advent of Kali Yuga everything , including religion got polluted . In Vedas animal sacrifice is permitted, as by the sacrifice, animals got human form of life immediately and were therefore benefited by such sacrifice . In kali yuga Brahmanas who used to perform sacrifices became sinful and thus lost the power of doing proper sacrifices . As a result animal sacrifice became meaningless slaughter of animals meant for meat eating , in the name of Vedas . Lord Buddha , who is an incarnation of Lord Himself , out of mercy to these helpless animals who were being slaughtered indiscriminately tried to stop killing of animals and in order to do that he had to reject Vedas .Since Lord has created the Vedas He can suspend it for some time for some special purpose .In other words Lord Buddha confiscated the right of studying Vedas from people of that time because they were not worthy of studying Vedas as they made too much confusion about it . In course of time Buddhism engulfed whole of India and beyond , as the doctrine was propagated by the Lord Himself .
However ,as Lord Buddha suspended the Vedas , Buddhists in course of time became atheists . Ved na maniya Bauddha hoila nastik /Vedashraye nastikyavad taharo adhik(Caitanya Caritamrita ) which means ,Buddhists became atheists by disregarding vedas , but those who are accepting vedas but propagating atheism through Mayavad are more harmful .
Lord Buddha never preached atheism but was silent about God as his main mission was to stop animal slaughter . Buddhism is also called Shunya –Vad .Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said that Buddhism is veiled atheism.
Then after sometime Lord wanted to re-establish Vedas, but that had to be done keeping some conformity with Buddhism as otherwise people would not be able to accept it at that time.
Sankaracarya therefore appeared to reinstate the Vedas by preaching a formless Brahman or Nirvisesh Brahman through his Maya-vad philosophy, by the order of The Lord as this was the need of the hour . This has some resemblence with buddhist philosophy which says everything ultimately culminates into nothingness (Shunyavad), whereas Mayavad philosophy said everything culminates into formless Brahman (Nirvisesh Brahman).In this way Sankaracarya tried to bring the Buddhists into vedic structure . It however,remained to be explained that Brahman being representation of God is not nothingness (Shunya) but full or complete (Purna).Brahman is a partial representation of The Lord and this is explained in Bhagavad Gita (14.27)as follows :
Brahmano hi pratisthaham
Amrtasya avyaya sa ca
Sasvatasya ca dharmasya
Sukhasyaikantikasya ca
God says : I am the basis of impersonal Brahman ,which is immortal, imperishable and eternal and is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness .
Then came Ramanujacharya who introduced the cult of Bhakti or devotion by establishing Savisesh Brahman or assuming God as a person with endless variety .
Alongwith Sri Sampradaya there are three other bonafide Vaisnava Sampradayas , which are :
Nimvarka Sampradaya, started by four Kumaras—Sanak, Sananda, Sanatana & sanat Kumara--- their philosophy being Dvaitadvaita –Vad
Rudra Sampradaya , started by Lord Siva and Visnu Swami is its main proponent or Acarya. Their Philosophy is Suddha Dvaita Vad
Last but not the least is Brahma- Madhva Sampradaya, which was started by Lord Brahma , and its main proponent was Madvacharya. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu , who was Lord Krsna himself with the bodily hue and mood of Srimati Radharani appeared in this sect and enriched it further by giving His doctrine of Acintya Bheda-Bhed Tattva . Lord Caitanya took some features from all 4 above mentioned Vaisnava Sampradayas and created Brahama-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya where cult of Bhakti is held as the Supreme . These 4 Vaisnava Sampradayas are called Kshiti –Pavan or capable of delivering people of this world out of their material bondage .
It will be observed that in all 4 Vaisnava Sampradyas, Dvaita and Advaita ( Dual and non dual) nature of Jivatma and Paramatma ( individual soul and super soul) are accepted , which means that individual soul and super soul are different and non different at the same time .For example , sea and a drop of sea water are qualitatively the same as by chemical analysis we can establish that both have the same property , but quantitatively they are quite different, because a drop of sea water does not have the vastness of the sea.
One must understand that individual soul can never be equal to Super soul and the only duty of individual soul is to serve the Super Soul ---Jiber Swarup hoy Krishner Nitya Das
( The constitutional position of an individual soul is to be a servant of Krsna always )
To have the master servant relation Dwaita or dual nature of Individual soul and Super soul is necessary .
In Sankar’s Kevaladvaita Vad only similarity between Individual soul and Super Soul is accepted and ordinary people misunderstood this doctrine by thinking every individual soul is as good as Super soul or non different from it in every respect . It is therefore not possible to serve the Super Soul . . Also to think Individual soul to be the same as Super Soul is an offence and in effect atheism. That is why in Caitanya Caritamrta it is said : Mayavadi Krsna Aparadhi or Mayavadis are offenceful to Krsna because according to them every living entity is God .
Actually living entity is part and parcel of God but God has always seperate existence from living entities and living entities can never become God . An example is Sun and the Sun shine or sun rays . Sun's rays are parts and parcels of the Sun ,yet the Sun is seperate from the sun rays and it exists independently .
It is said Buddhism is veiled atheism and MayaVad is veiled Buddhism , both of which are actually atheism in ultimate analysis .
Caitanya Mahaprabhu transformed SarbaBhauma Bhattacharya who was a leading scholar of Mayavad Philosophy of that time into a vaisnava . Mahaprabhu explained to him that great souls who are already liberated by meditating upon formless Brahman and who have no attachment or attraction to anything, still find pleasure in becoming a devotee of The Lord . This is explained in the following verse of Srimad Bhagavatam
(1.7.10)
Atmaramas ca munayo
Nirgrantha apy Urukrame
Kurvanty ahaitukim bhaktim
Ittham-bhuta-guno Harih
Meaning : All different varieties of Atmaramas (those who take pleasure in atma or spirit or self) especially those established on the path of self realisation , though freed from all kinds of material bondage , desire to render unalloyed devotional service unto the Personality og Godhead . This happens because Lord possesses , transcendental qualities and therefore can attract everyone , including liberated souls .
This verse is proof enough that impersonal brahman is not the ultimate destination ,and that is why liberated souls still long for devotional service to The Lord .
Actually , achieving Brahman or impersonal feature of The Lord is like cessation of material suffering after being lifted to the spiritual sky . It is like a neutral state and without any taste . As a living entity always seeks pleasure or rasa , he must be able to taste spiritual mellow in order to remain in the spiritual sky , otherwise he has to again come down to material plane in search of material taste which he overcame by severe efforts . But in order to taste spiritual mellow one has to enter one of the spiritual planets in the spiritual sky according to different incarnations of The Lord . Thus there is Spiritual Ayodhya , Spiritual Dwarka , Spiritual Mathura and Spiritual Vrndavana where Lord is doing His eternal pastimes in respective incarnations .In spiritual Ayodhya Lord is doing His pastime in form of Rama , in Spiritual Dwarka Lord is doing his pastime with 16,000 queens and other inhabitants of Yadu dynasty , similarly in Spiritual Vrndavan Lord is doing His pastime with Gopis( cowherd girls)and other inhabitants of Vrdavana which is devoid of grandeur and splendour of Dwarka but is very peaceful in the surroundings of forest , ponds trees and cows and cowherd boys and girls who are all absorbed in the thought of Krsna . Krsna's parents Nanda and Yashoda are also merged into parental love towards Krsna .
In order to enter these planets one has to serve The Lord in respective mood or incarnations . For example , who serves Ram and Sita perfectly he will go to Spiritual Ayodhya , he who serves The Lord as Laxmi and Narayan will go to spritual Dwarka and he who serves The Lord in His intimate pastime will go to Vrndavana .
Vaisnavas donot aspire to go to Spiritual Dwarka and enjoy the grandeur and splendour there or to spiritual Ayodhya , but want to be involved in intimate relationship with the Lord in form of Gopa Sakha or Gopikas because that is the highest mellow .
That is why Mahaprabhu said " Aradhya Bhagavan Brajesha Tanaya, Tat dhama Vrndavana ", meaning our worshipable Lord is Krsna who is son of Nanda Maharaja king of Braja and His place of residence is Vrndavana . Vaisnavas donot want to worship four handed Narayana or even Vasudeva Krsna (who manifested Himself as son of Vasudeva and Devaki )because Vasudeva Krsna is in the mood of a king and therefore intimate pastime with Him is not possible .The way He can be worshipped is awe and reverence . On the contrary Brajesha Tanay Krsna is just like any other cowherd boy and friends are playing with Him without awe and reverence and sometimes treating Him with contempt just like any other friend . Krsna says He likes this mellow the most and this is the highest rasa one experiences when one is allowed to enter in Lord's Vrndavana pastime .This rasa is very difficult to obtain even for Laxmi Devi, because she being the Goddess of fortune is in a different mood (Aisharya Bhava)and therefore not allowed to enter Vrndavana , where there is no tinge of Aishwarya Bhava or the mood of grandeur or splendour .Even Mahadeva cannot enter Vrndavana for his being in a different mood .Trademark of Vrndavana rasa is un alloyed devotion to Krsna which is without any reason or purpose and which is spontaneous and without break or cessation .
Although Sankaracharya cannot be held responsible for his misrepresentation , because he preached Maya Vad by God’s order ,[in Caitanya Caritamrta we find : Tnar dosh nahi tneho agna-kari das ,/ Mayavadi Bhasya sunile hoy sarbanash-- meaning Sankar is not to be blamed as he is only serving God's order]but if one hears his Mayavadi interpretation of Shastra he is doomed .So his doctrine did deviate a lot of persons from the cult of Bhakti or devotion which is the only way to get access to God’s kingdom .
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I tried to give a glimpse of Vaisnava Philosophy and its comparison with Maya Vad philosophy . If I have been able to do it correctly , then it is by mercy of my Guru Maharaja , and if I have made any mistake in my presentation , then it is solely my own fault for which I beg to be excused .
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