Canonicals of Vedanta

The canonicals of Vendanta are three – the Upanishads, the Gita and the BrahmaSutra.

1.   Shruti: (Revelation): The upadesha prasthana or injunctive texts are the Upanishads. They are the starting point of revelation.

Upanishads are the Gjana Kanda or the ‘chapters of Knowledge’ within the Vedas (the other being the Karma Kanda or the rituals).

Each of the four Vedas can be broadly divided into two:

a.   The Karma Kanda (or Brahmanas) or chapters dedicated to Karma or action

b.   The Gjana Kanda or the chapters dedicated to Gjana or wisdom 

The Karma Kanda deals with the rituals and customs that one has to perform to attain something. For example, to attain a job, a child, neutralize bad luck etc. In terms of Vedanta, this translates to duality or Dvaita -  You and god. Meaning that there is two and you do things to attain god.

The other part is the Gjana Kanda which is Advaita or non-duality. You and god are one – everything is a part of the Brahman – the absolute. The Gjana Kanda are the Upanishads.

Upanishad is derived from ‘upa’, ‘ni’ and ‘shad’ – Upa meaning ‘sit’, ‘ni’ meaning destroy and ‘shid’ meaning ignorance or in total translating to ‘sit down (with a guru) and destroy ignorance’

The ‘Guru’ is the ‘destroyer of ignorance’. Vedanta defines a ‘guru’ as someone who possesses two qualities:

a.   Has to be self realized and

b.   Has to be well versed in the Upanishads. 

The ‘shishya’ (disciple) of the above guru is defined in four qualities that are needed:

a.   Viveka (discrimination – especially between real and unreal)

b.   Vairagya (dispassion, detachment)

c.   Calmness of mind

d.   Yearning for liberation

It must be noted that in Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy does not deny duality. In fact it states that there are two of everything (ignorance/knowledge; light/darness; real/maya, jeevatma/paramatma). But that both are Brahman or that they are one and the same.

To-date, there have been about 200 upanishads that have been discovered. The earliest ones called the mukhya (or most important) upanishads are a part of the Vedas.

Many western philosophers like Schopenhauer have called it the ‘highest human wisdom’. Transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau have noted many similarities between the doctrines of the Upanishads and those of Plato and Kant.

2.   Smrithi: (Recollection): Sadhana prasthana or practical text is the Bhagavad Gita. This deals with everything that is stored in the subconscious mind and can be recalled to one’s consciousness.

I will explain this in detail over my later series of blogs on the Bhagavad gita.

3.   Brahmasutras: Also know as Vedanta Sutras, They are the Nyaya prasthana or Yukti prasthana or logical text. They apparently provide the ‘logic-based starting point’. They are intended to be a summary of the teachings of the Upanishads. They are often referred to as the Uttara-Mimamsa or the investigation of the later part of the Vedas as differentiated from the Mimamsa or the earlier part of the Vedas (Brahmanas) that deal with the Karma-Kanda. The author of the Brahmasutra is Badarayana. He is sometimes known as Krishna Dwaypayana Vyasa to the Vaishnavaites, the author of the epic Mahabharatha.

The attempt of the Brahma Sutras is to reconcile the seemingly contradictory and diverse thoughts across the various Upanishads and the Gita. Sutra or ‘thread’ means to stich the various pieces of Vedanta together. 

The Brahmasutras consist of 555 aphorisms (a pithy observation that contains a general truth or the concise statement of a scientific principle) or sutras in four Adhyaya or chapters. Each chapter has four quarters or padas and each pada has groups of sutras called  Adhikaranas.

The first chapter is the Samanvaya or Harmony. This talks about Brahman, the ultimate reality and goal of life. The second is the Avirodha or non-confict. This talks about the possible objections to Vedanta and counters each of them. The third is the Sadhana or the means of achieving moksha or liberation. The fourth chapter is Phala or the fruit. This talks about the state that is achieved once we attain liberation.

Commentaries have been written on the Brahmasutras by many enlightened souls like Sankara, Padmapada, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya, Jayatirtha, Bhaskara etc. Each one has written it from a different point of view while the core subject and pretext remains the same.

Life of Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada Part 4

As I try to understand the life of Adi Sankaracharya, I would argue that his legacy of revitalizing the Advaita philosophy was achieved primarily through two different means.

1. His commentaries and writings on the three canonicals of Advaita: The updanishads, the Bhgavad Geetha and the Brahma Sutras. While all three texts had existed

2.    His exhaustive arguments with other philosophers that have been captured and documented.

Today, Vedanta almost defines the lifestyle in India entirely. While Hinduism as a religion originated from this as well, Hinduism as a non-religious way of life, which most people living in India follow, is from Vedanta.

Sankara’s mission in life was to spread spiritualism and the teachings of Advaita or non-duality. Through the works of his life, he established the non-duality between Jeevatman and Brahman, the supreme – the infinite. He expounded the teachings in the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Gita.

As he traversed the length and breadth of the country propagating the philosophy of Advaita, he crystallized the philosophy and became its greatest follower.

Some of the notable stops during his travels:

1.Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh: He composed the Shivanandalahari and the Lakshmi-Narasimha Strotra

2. Gokarna in Karnataka: He argued and defeated the famous philosopher, Neelakanta

3.  Ujjayini in Gujarat: He argued and defeated Bhatta Bhaskara

4. Bahlika in Northwest India: This was the famous debate against the philosophers of Jainism

5.   Sarvanjnapitha in Pakisthan-occupied-Kashmir: His debate and defeat of all scholars earned him the title of ‘Sarvanjna pitha’ – the ultimate pedestal of the knowledge – Transcendent Wisdom

As he continued to travel, he expounded the philosophy and argued against all other prevailing thoughts. For most part, he won all the arguments and managed to convert the people to Advaita. Some of the biggest rivals he had to the Advaita Vedanta philosophy were the Mimamsa and Sankhya schools of philosophy that preached fundamentally that God was not a unified being.

The fundamental idea of Sankara’s Advaita was that god was Brahman, the infinite one and everything else was from that one Brahman. He argued that only through direct knowledge could one obtain Brahman. Just like a person sees the illusion of a snake in a rope in a dark room due to ignorance, in real life he does not see the Brahman, but just the mere illusion due to his ignorance.

Vedanta (Including the Gita) describes the essence of our human life as the continuous attempt of exhausting the vasanas that we acquire, and by holding a true Satvic mind, not acquiring anymore. The moment we can exhaust the vasanas of this lifetime, the human body dies. Most humans (with the exception of the extremely Satvic sages) never exhaust their vasasanas in their lifetime and hence live longer and are reborn to continue the attempt at exhausting them.

True sages with a pure satvic mind which realizes the ‘maya’ of the world and that there is only one absolute infinite Brahman and the life/body is but an instrument through which Brahman is acting – hence total detachment – Such a person is the only one who becomes self realized and attains ‘moksha’ or liberation.

Towards the last stages of his life, Adi Sankaracharya traveled and reached Badrinath-Kedarnath. It was here that he attained the ‘Videha Mukti’ or ‘moksha’ or ‘liberation. Just as the case is with many famous people in the world, there are arguments as to where exactly he attained his mahasamadhi (where his soul left his body). Each historical commentary (‘sankara vijaya’) argues differently. The Kerala ones argues that he attained Samadhi in Thrissur. The followers of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetha claim it was in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

While the place where he attained Samadhi is being argued, there is no argument that he attained Maha Samadhi and total liberation.

If you were to go by the Vedanta argument I have given above, that – if you have a pure satvic mind and exhaust your vasanas, you can get liberation. Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada was truly an enlightened soul. He realized the Brahman very early in his life and hence had a pure Satvic mind. That must have been reason he exhausted his vasanas very quickly and attained Moksha/Samadhi at the young age of 32.

As the years go by and stories and legends keep getting modified to suit the ages, the only constant is the impact he had on Indian philosophy and society. No one has had such a deep impact that affected almost every aspect of Indian lives today, especially Hinduism. There have been many contempories and other scholars of Vedanta over the ages, but none as influential as Adi Sankaracharya.

Adi Sankaracharya’s philosophy of Advaita was non-sectarian and advocated the worship of many dieties – not just shiva or Vishnu but others including Sakti, Ganapti etc. However most of the Sankaracharyas over the generations have been a lot more influential with the Shaivaite (shiva followers) community than the Vaishnavaite (Vishnu follower) community.

While Sankara argues that the Brahman was infinite, attributeless and impersonal, many of his contempories argued on similar lines but had a single god as the absolute. While Sankaracharya’s have traditionally been more associated with Shaivates, Sankara’s brilliant composition of the Bhaja Govindam is in the name of Govinda or Vishnu. The Bhaja Govindam is a great summary of Advaita Vendanta through the devotion to Lord Govinda or Vishnu. This is one piece of Sankara’s legacy that the Vaishnavaites typically embrace as well.

Over the next series of blogs, I will try and explain the various tenets of Advaita and related works.

Life of Adi Sankaracharya Bhagavadpada Part 3

In an effort to spread the philosophy, he established 4 mathas (‘monasteries’) in the four part of India. He wanted to propagate the knowledge of Vedanta focused on the attainment of ‘moksha’ or ‘liberation of the soul’ through a monastic life.

Legend has it that he came across the famous Mandana Misra who argued against Sankara’s monastic way of life as a means of achieving liberation. Mandana believed in the householder way of life and claimed that was the dharma and the best means of achieving liberation.  He met Mandana Misra at Mahismati, modern day Mandala on the banks of the river Narmada. It is said that the debate went on for over 15 days with Ubhaya Bharati or Sarasawani, the extremely learned wife of Mandana Misra as the referee. Mandana accepted defeat on the 15^th day and decided to adopt the ascetic way of life. But, his wife Ubhaya Bharati intercepted and told Sankara that he had to debate and defeat her before she would give her husband permission to become an ascetic. Her debate with Sankara was even more intense that the one with Mandana. Stories are told even today how she perplexed him, a born celibate, with questions around sexual relations between a man and a woman. It is said that Sankara had to leave his human body and enter the body of a dead king to find answers to her questions on sexual relations.

As with any part of history, there are many stories and legends that have mostly been transmitted through word of mouth from generation to generation. Hence they have been modified to fit the circumstances prevailing in society at that given time.

After a long and ferocious debate, Sarasawani conceded and together with her husband Mandana, decided to accept the ascetic way of life and became the earliest disciples of Sankara. Mandana assumed his ascetic name of Sureswaracharya.

Their journey to disseminate knowledge of Advaita brought them to Sringeri, in Karnataka. Sringeri is named after the famous sage Rishyasringa. It is on the banks of the confluence of the two rivers of Tunga and Badra.  There are many stories surrounding why Adi Sankara set up the first matha here. Whether it was because of the stories of Sage Rishyasringa and his successful penances or because he saw a Cobra protecting a pregnant frog (Frogs don’t get pregnant in nature) with is hood from the sun or whether Sarasawani could not move and got rooted to the spot – the only fact that is established is that the first Matha (Amnaya Peetham) was established here in the late 8^th – early 9^th century.  

Amnaya Peetham literally means the ‘throne of the veda’. This was the first one established as ‘Dakshina Moolamnaya matha’ or the main matha. (in the south).

The Amanaya Peetham or monastery in Sringeri is the ‘owner’ or ‘authority’ on the Yajur Veda. This came to be called the ‘Sarada peedam’ after the goddess Sarada who is the main deity there. He established Mandana or Sureswaracharya as the first leader of the place. The matham is focused on the ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ tenet of Vendanta or that ‘I am Brahman’.

In the west of the country, he established the Pachimamnaya Matha or the Western matha at Dwaraka in modern day Gujarat. This matha called the Dwaraka Peetham follows the Sama Veda way of life and focuses on the ‘Tattvamasi’ tenet of Vedanta or the ‘I am’.  (I am the Brahman)

In the east of the country, he established the Purvamnaya matha or eastern matha. This came to be called the Govardhana Pitham and is located in modern day Puri, Odisha. This matha follows the rig veda way way of life and focuses on the ‘Prajananam brahma’ tenet of Vedanta or that the ‘consciousness is Brahman’.

In the north of the country, he established the Uttaramnaya matha or the Northers matha at Jyothirmath in modern day Uttarakhand. This matha is called the Jyothirmatha Peetham and follows the newest of the Vedas – Atharva Veda way of life and focuses on the ‘Ayamatma Brahman’ tenet of Vedanta or ‘The Atman is brahman’.