Thursday, December 27, 2007
RAMESH MAMA 'S INTRO ABOUT ADIYEN
dear all, i request all of you to visit THIS BLOG which is a BLOG created by my beloved nephew Vinodh !he is the eldest son of my sister Usha. after completing his B.E from Annamalai university he went on to do dual M.B.A [Finance & Marketing] from ICFAI, Hyd after which he joined IFFCO TOKYO ! he served them for a year at Hyderabad and since last 3 months he is working with ACCENTURE TECHNOLOGIES at Pune in their R & D department doing research work for them ! he is an avid Carnatic music listener, learner & very good performer ! though he learnt basics of Carnatic music a good 10 years back as a Voilin student, he has grasped the nuances of the same by virtue of constant listening to CDs & Cassettes of all time greats like Madurai Mani Iyer, Semmangudi Iyervaal, and living legends like Seshu not to leave behind rising stars Sanjay & the likes ! Vinodh is blessed with a wonderful memory power - he is EKA SANTAH GRAHI [i have borrowed his own phase which he has aptly used while describing his legendary paternal Pitahmah late Shri.C.S.Krishnamoorthy] !as many of you know, he had the great opurtunity and was privileged to interact with Shri.CSK [who was a great scholar, staunch Acharya Bhaktha, orator & known for his superb interpretation of ever great epics Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Vedas & Puranas!] & he spent quality time with his Maternal Pithamah late Shri.K.Govindaseshan [Adiyen's beloved father] who lived like a Saint, a true, devoted and steadfast Acharya baktha and who "walked his talk" - the blessings of these two great Souls coupled with Blessings of the Divine Couple has been instrumental in Vinodh's achievements thus far ! i had the pleasure of listening to his lovely Carnatic rendition quite a few times [i enjoyed his songs though i am a gnana soonyam in carnatic music] & also heard his rendevouz on some of the great topics like Acharya bakthi etc..you can contact Vinodh at vinodh.sundar@gmail.com [+919823996898]and share your thoughts, advise and also please shower your kind blessings on him. with kind regards & best wishesg.ramesh
Monday, December 17, 2007
prama & brama as propounded by vedanta desika
following bagavan shri Ramanuja, the giant logician shri venketesha explains the valid knowledge{PRAMA} , the cause {prameya} , and the difference between Brama or illusion and prama , using the central theme of vishistadvaitha called {APRTHAKSIDDHI OR INSEPARABLE DISTINGUISHED WHOLE} .
The ultimate reality as propounded by vedas- Shriman Narayana is the absolute reality , he is sarva lokha sharanya , param dhaman, paramatma, etc. the absolute reality allows differentiation through its modes {PRAKARAS} without undergoing any fundemental change in itself as a whole. the CHIT{JEEVAN} AND ACHIT{PRAKRITI} are its modes of expression .
together all the afore mentioned three form an inseperable yet differentiated whole. lets take an example of a mango fruit. its various elements are flesh, peel, colour, taste, smell, size, shape etc. out of all these elements the fundemental element is the main gene of the mango , called VISHESHYA and others become attributive elements called VISHESHANAS. the attributive elements qualify the flesh as mango. these elements are different from each other and from the flesh yet together they form a synthetic whole. the colour, taste smell , size may vary but in accordance with the fundemental gene and yet remain one as mango. similarly ishwara the substantiative one drives the attributive elements {chit and achit} and to gether they form a unified reality.
vedanta Desika says, prama should satisfy two conditions . it should reveal the existence of an object which should be practical. PRAMEYAM is the distinctive cause of prama in sofar as knowledge arises through its agency without delay. Desika admits there are three methods of knowing namely, pratyaksham, anumanam, sabdam meaning perception, inference and scriptual testimony. regarding the two kinds of perception refer to my previous article on savikalpa and nirvikalpa . Desika further continues that , the act of cognition involves the knowing subject, the knowable object different from the subject and the consciousness. perception is always of an object marked by some qualities . this perception leads to jnana which is ajada and in its expanded state during moksha its called dharmabhutajnana or attributive consciousness whose nature is to reveal the relationship of the self as an attribute of the supreme Hari.
the doctorine of illusion is not admitted by Ramanujas school of thought and its countered by the brilliant logic of "SATKYAATHI". Ramanuja says even illusion is a partial knowledge about an onject because of our defective consciousness in samsara. all the objects are formed by the vedic doctorine of PANCHIKARANA , according to which each of the five main elements of fire, air, akasha, water ,earth is a compound of 1/8 th part of the other four and half of its pure form. so during illusion the insignificant elements of a substance are revealed which may not serve any practical purpose and hence called BRAMA instead of PRAMA.
take any illusion like mirrage in desert , even science agrees that desert sand has little composition of water though insignificant for practical purposes. but if it is revealed disproportionately due to our defective consciousness only partial reality of the desert is perceived and the whole perception may be called distorted but not unreal , for it reveals partial information about the desert - that sand is present , heat is present but water alone is amplified. thus brama is not revelation of an non existing substance but partial and distorted revelation of an existing object .
the kind of logic applied by Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika is beyond any words i can use to express. In depth of thinking, adherence to relentless principles of logic , in exemplication and in darshana Ramanuja & Vedanta Desika go beyond what we call excellence. let us pray to lord venketesha and acharya vedanta Desika so that we realise our dharmabhutajnana .
The ultimate reality as propounded by vedas- Shriman Narayana is the absolute reality , he is sarva lokha sharanya , param dhaman, paramatma, etc. the absolute reality allows differentiation through its modes {PRAKARAS} without undergoing any fundemental change in itself as a whole. the CHIT{JEEVAN} AND ACHIT{PRAKRITI} are its modes of expression .
together all the afore mentioned three form an inseperable yet differentiated whole. lets take an example of a mango fruit. its various elements are flesh, peel, colour, taste, smell, size, shape etc. out of all these elements the fundemental element is the main gene of the mango , called VISHESHYA and others become attributive elements called VISHESHANAS. the attributive elements qualify the flesh as mango. these elements are different from each other and from the flesh yet together they form a synthetic whole. the colour, taste smell , size may vary but in accordance with the fundemental gene and yet remain one as mango. similarly ishwara the substantiative one drives the attributive elements {chit and achit} and to gether they form a unified reality.
vedanta Desika says, prama should satisfy two conditions . it should reveal the existence of an object which should be practical. PRAMEYAM is the distinctive cause of prama in sofar as knowledge arises through its agency without delay. Desika admits there are three methods of knowing namely, pratyaksham, anumanam, sabdam meaning perception, inference and scriptual testimony. regarding the two kinds of perception refer to my previous article on savikalpa and nirvikalpa . Desika further continues that , the act of cognition involves the knowing subject, the knowable object different from the subject and the consciousness. perception is always of an object marked by some qualities . this perception leads to jnana which is ajada and in its expanded state during moksha its called dharmabhutajnana or attributive consciousness whose nature is to reveal the relationship of the self as an attribute of the supreme Hari.
the doctorine of illusion is not admitted by Ramanujas school of thought and its countered by the brilliant logic of "SATKYAATHI". Ramanuja says even illusion is a partial knowledge about an onject because of our defective consciousness in samsara. all the objects are formed by the vedic doctorine of PANCHIKARANA , according to which each of the five main elements of fire, air, akasha, water ,earth is a compound of 1/8 th part of the other four and half of its pure form. so during illusion the insignificant elements of a substance are revealed which may not serve any practical purpose and hence called BRAMA instead of PRAMA.
take any illusion like mirrage in desert , even science agrees that desert sand has little composition of water though insignificant for practical purposes. but if it is revealed disproportionately due to our defective consciousness only partial reality of the desert is perceived and the whole perception may be called distorted but not unreal , for it reveals partial information about the desert - that sand is present , heat is present but water alone is amplified. thus brama is not revelation of an non existing substance but partial and distorted revelation of an existing object .
the kind of logic applied by Ramanuja and Vedanta Desika is beyond any words i can use to express. In depth of thinking, adherence to relentless principles of logic , in exemplication and in darshana Ramanuja & Vedanta Desika go beyond what we call excellence. let us pray to lord venketesha and acharya vedanta Desika so that we realise our dharmabhutajnana .
who is the doer? and which is better karma yoga or samkya yoga?
In general sense we all know about what ego is. it is the feeling of i as different from rest. this i called ego makes one think that the action is performed by him. also the law of karma says because of our action we get the respective results. but is it really we who act?
bhagavan says in geeta to arjuna that "prakrirther kriya manani gunaih karmani sarvashah ahamkaraa vimoodatmah karta aham iti manyate" meaning , those actions that are performed by the three gunas that are ingredients of this prakriti , are imagined by the foolish atman loaded with ego as performed by himself. in reality the jeevan has no power over prakriti. the prakriti is controlled by rta or cosmic order . " tvam eva pratyaksham brahma vadishyami, rtam vadishyami" . the prakriti has three gunas satva, rajo and tamas . this jeevan that wrongly thinks it is the body is controlled by the gunas of prakriti and hence its action.
Bhagavan continues with the statement " Bhoktaram yagnatapasam sarvalokha maheshwaram, suhrudam sarva boothanam gynatva maam shantim ichhati" the lord krishna is the sole enjoyer of all the sacrifices and actions. also he is the primodial cause of all activities--" eshwaraa parama krishna sachidananda vigrah anadi adirah govindah sarva karana karanam" --mentioned in brahma samhita.
the atma , because of karma gets associated with prakriti and is controlled by the gunas. hence its action is not by its free will but because of the nature of its gunas it is controlled by. but the atma because of grace of the lord alone, can break from this bondage by bhakti and prappati.
this does not give us freedom to commit violence thinking, "i am not the cause of action" because, till our ahamkara is caught with samsara and we feel that we are our body , all the merits and demerits of action will cling to us. " ayuktha kamaa karena karma phale ni-bhadyate"
the person who has not realised his self as a sesha to narayana ,will, because of affection by the results of activies, get attached to the results and again become controlled by tri-gunas. the path of karma yoga is to slowly detach oneself from the results of activities. thus karma leading to gnyana and further to bhakti is the right path. " sanyaasam cha yogam cha ni shreya sakara ubhauv , tayostu karma sanyaasat karmayogou vishishyate" --- of both karma yoga and samkya , both are fruitful but of the two karma yoga is superior and easier.
also as said by yagnavalka maharishi" kayaane vachaa manasah indriyerva budhytmana va: prakritersvabavath, karomi yadyat sakalam parasmi narayanaayethi samarpayaami" with my body, speech , mind and buddhi and other organs , conditioned by prakriti, whatever actiion i perform i do it for the sake of narayana and let the results be for him alone.
bhagavan says in geeta to arjuna that "prakrirther kriya manani gunaih karmani sarvashah ahamkaraa vimoodatmah karta aham iti manyate" meaning , those actions that are performed by the three gunas that are ingredients of this prakriti , are imagined by the foolish atman loaded with ego as performed by himself. in reality the jeevan has no power over prakriti. the prakriti is controlled by rta or cosmic order . " tvam eva pratyaksham brahma vadishyami, rtam vadishyami" . the prakriti has three gunas satva, rajo and tamas . this jeevan that wrongly thinks it is the body is controlled by the gunas of prakriti and hence its action.
Bhagavan continues with the statement " Bhoktaram yagnatapasam sarvalokha maheshwaram, suhrudam sarva boothanam gynatva maam shantim ichhati" the lord krishna is the sole enjoyer of all the sacrifices and actions. also he is the primodial cause of all activities--" eshwaraa parama krishna sachidananda vigrah anadi adirah govindah sarva karana karanam" --mentioned in brahma samhita.
the atma , because of karma gets associated with prakriti and is controlled by the gunas. hence its action is not by its free will but because of the nature of its gunas it is controlled by. but the atma because of grace of the lord alone, can break from this bondage by bhakti and prappati.
this does not give us freedom to commit violence thinking, "i am not the cause of action" because, till our ahamkara is caught with samsara and we feel that we are our body , all the merits and demerits of action will cling to us. " ayuktha kamaa karena karma phale ni-bhadyate"
the person who has not realised his self as a sesha to narayana ,will, because of affection by the results of activies, get attached to the results and again become controlled by tri-gunas. the path of karma yoga is to slowly detach oneself from the results of activities. thus karma leading to gnyana and further to bhakti is the right path. " sanyaasam cha yogam cha ni shreya sakara ubhauv , tayostu karma sanyaasat karmayogou vishishyate" --- of both karma yoga and samkya , both are fruitful but of the two karma yoga is superior and easier.
also as said by yagnavalka maharishi" kayaane vachaa manasah indriyerva budhytmana va: prakritersvabavath, karomi yadyat sakalam parasmi narayanaayethi samarpayaami" with my body, speech , mind and buddhi and other organs , conditioned by prakriti, whatever actiion i perform i do it for the sake of narayana and let the results be for him alone.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
savikalpa and nirvikalpa demystified by yathiraja
savikalpa and nirvikalpa roughly means determinate and non determinate perception. mayaa vadins opine that in savikalpa perception subject object difference is perceived, in other words object is viewed as distinct from the perceiver. in nirvikalpa there is no subject or object as distinct but merged i.e the subject and object become one and perception is of an unqualified entity.
Ramanuja gives a better explanation grounded with logic and veritable principles of cognition. he says savikalpa is formed when you see an object whose prototype is already known . when we see cows of different colours we recognise them deterministically by comparing the memory of cow prototype and the present cow. In nirvikalpa , the object is seen for the first time so it is not cognized as some thing already known but as a new (non deterministic entity). suppose we see a a green animal with three heads and two tails, we dont cognize it but form a new perception called as nirvikalpa . this is accepted even by neoro science today. also ramanuja further opines that , perception can reveal only objects marked by difference. when we perceive some object we perceive it as something unique and different from rest. cognitive science agrees with the view that unless there is any difference between the environment and the object, the object can never be perceived by brain. also perception can never reveal an object without any attributes , for such an object can neither be proved to exist nor can be logically inferred.
Ramanuja further continues that a word that has a root and ending and is made up of different syllables can only point at a differentiated entity { meaning that if the entity has no attributes then no syllable is needed to describe it, for syllables point at some attribute or quality or a mixture} eg: {this is adiyens commentary-take amma or appa or any word the syllables a and ma shows a differentiated entity called mother and all words behave the same way. take the word unqualified and non differentiated , they are self destructive like the phrase -living corpse . they suffer from the same dosha .so the word "unqualified" has to point to an entity that is different from qualified entities and hence qualifies the object with the attribute "unqualified" and hence self destructive & non differentiated has to point to an object that is different from differentiated one and in both cases presence of another object different from the one implied by the words is proved and hence self destructive phrases} some may find it tough to comprehend this for it requires a knowledge on nyaya and tarkam to understand the significance of the afore said.
sentences made up of different words cannot describe a arrtibuteless object for the afore said reason. thus either by speech, words or inferrence only qualified objects can be perceived.
In short words with differentiated syllables & ,sentences with differentiated words cannot convey an idea of attributeless non-difference.
the method of deploying logic is mind bogling and the argument is presented to perfection with his unmatched dharshana in vedartha samgraha. the only other logician who can match this style is Vedanta Desika. Desika goes a step forward in satha dushini logically drawing out the prequisites for perception. he says the very need for perception arises because of difference. if there is a non differentiated un qualified object , what is the need for perception and who is the perceiver? what does that perceiver perceive? . why there is need to perceive a non diff -unqualified entity ? so desikan says the need for perception is to get cognizance on an object with attributes. desikan refutes the mayavadins view -that non difference is perceived .
Ramanuja gives a better explanation grounded with logic and veritable principles of cognition. he says savikalpa is formed when you see an object whose prototype is already known . when we see cows of different colours we recognise them deterministically by comparing the memory of cow prototype and the present cow. In nirvikalpa , the object is seen for the first time so it is not cognized as some thing already known but as a new (non deterministic entity). suppose we see a a green animal with three heads and two tails, we dont cognize it but form a new perception called as nirvikalpa . this is accepted even by neoro science today. also ramanuja further opines that , perception can reveal only objects marked by difference. when we perceive some object we perceive it as something unique and different from rest. cognitive science agrees with the view that unless there is any difference between the environment and the object, the object can never be perceived by brain. also perception can never reveal an object without any attributes , for such an object can neither be proved to exist nor can be logically inferred.
Ramanuja further continues that a word that has a root and ending and is made up of different syllables can only point at a differentiated entity { meaning that if the entity has no attributes then no syllable is needed to describe it, for syllables point at some attribute or quality or a mixture} eg: {this is adiyens commentary-take amma or appa or any word the syllables a and ma shows a differentiated entity called mother and all words behave the same way. take the word unqualified and non differentiated , they are self destructive like the phrase -living corpse . they suffer from the same dosha .so the word "unqualified" has to point to an entity that is different from qualified entities and hence qualifies the object with the attribute "unqualified" and hence self destructive & non differentiated has to point to an object that is different from differentiated one and in both cases presence of another object different from the one implied by the words is proved and hence self destructive phrases} some may find it tough to comprehend this for it requires a knowledge on nyaya and tarkam to understand the significance of the afore said.
sentences made up of different words cannot describe a arrtibuteless object for the afore said reason. thus either by speech, words or inferrence only qualified objects can be perceived.
In short words with differentiated syllables & ,sentences with differentiated words cannot convey an idea of attributeless non-difference.
the method of deploying logic is mind bogling and the argument is presented to perfection with his unmatched dharshana in vedartha samgraha. the only other logician who can match this style is Vedanta Desika. Desika goes a step forward in satha dushini logically drawing out the prequisites for perception. he says the very need for perception arises because of difference. if there is a non differentiated un qualified object , what is the need for perception and who is the perceiver? what does that perceiver perceive? . why there is need to perceive a non diff -unqualified entity ? so desikan says the need for perception is to get cognizance on an object with attributes. desikan refutes the mayavadins view -that non difference is perceived .
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