The
Upanishads and the three schools of thought
(Dwaita,
Visisthadwaita and Advaita)
By Madhava Kumar Turumella
Any religion in this world survives for ages only because of the profundity and richness it has gotten in its philosophical thought. Religious philosophy, in general, is nothing but the inquiry of the privileged human being in to the unknown. Here the unknown can be anything. Some people have inquired in to the existence of God some others have inquired about themselves like "who am I, where am I from, where am I going" etceteras. Everyone, who ever inquired with inquisitiveness, got separate answers according to their own understanding. They have taught their understanding to their disciples and by the disciples to the others, thus forming a separate school of thought. Hindu’s religious books are called Vedas. Vedas are, basically believed to be, God's direct revelations. They are vast compilations of many hymns received by many seers. In olden days teachers used to teach Vedas to their students, But, the teaching is not continued like a monologue. The subject being taught (that is, Vedic hymns) is directly questioned and the teacher was supposed to satisfy his pupil's inquisitive mind hence turning the teaching in to a dialogue. The answers are so great that they again became a part of the vedas named "upanishads." As an illustration, we have this question "Who is supposed to be called as a brahmin?". This question is answered in an Upanishad called "vajrasuchi Upanishad." In this Upanishad the student question the guru "kOvA brAhmaNaH?". Meaning "who is the brahmin." The guru answers rather in a very elaborate manner. The whole dialogue is recorded and kept safe, so that, we will not get a doubt in future about the subject. In the same way, "Kena unanishad" is also a question asked by a student. The very name itself is a question. i.e. Kena = by whom?. Since these upanishads are placed at the end of Vedas, they are also called as Vedanta i.e. Philosophy. All four Vedas have their own upanishads. Actually we should have had at least more than 1200 upanishads. Indeed, the foreign invasions and the attack from the other religions have caused us loosing most of the upanishads. And the great damage was done to them by some foreign sanskrit scholars writing their own upanishads and puts them forth to support their own religion. For example, we have an upanishad called "SailOpanishad" means, "That which is told on mountains." This upanishad is nothing but a sanskrit translation of the "ten commandments"!. Same way we have another Upanishad called "AllOpanishad" you can rightly guess the name itself contains "Allah" the muslim God. This upanishad Is again a translation of some parts of Holy Quron. It is not that the other religious scholars have done something wrong. Probably, they must have done this to make us understand their religion. Unfortunately and inevitably these upanishads have confused the later days' scholars and there arose a need to identify the right upanishads. And a massive research had been commenced and fruitfully we found the "Mouktika Upanishad." This "Mouktika Upanishad" was taught to Hanuma by Lord Sri Rama. It is but obvious that when Rama was ruling, there was no Muslim or Crishtian religions. Hence our scholars have accepted the "mouktika upanishad" as authentic. Fortunate for us, in the mouktika upanishad Sri Rama teaches Hamuman about moral values and quotes from various upanishads. In fact, Sri Rama has reffered 108 upanishads. That is why we have 108 authentic upanishads. In Mouktika upanishad Sri Rama advises Hanuman to study "Bruhadaranyaka Upanishad" in order to understand higher self (the self with in). He also advises if in case one fails to understand "bruhadaranyaka" then one should study the 10 main upanishads, further he advises that better study 108 upanishads. The ten main upanishads, which are the back bone to the Hindu philosophical thoughts are named in the following sloka. SlO : eeSa kEna kaThaH praSna muMDa mAMDookya taittiri aitarEyaMca ChaMdOgyaM bruhadAranyakaM daSa || They are (1) Esavasya (2) Kena (3) Katha (4) prasna (5)muMdaka (6) maMDookya (7) taittiriya (8) aitarEya (9)chaMdOgya (10) bruhadAraNyaka. Thus, these upanishads are standing there to show the right path to the seeker. Here the seeker means "one who is inquisitive to understand the higher soul or God." "Is there someone called God? If so, where is he? What is he doing?" These are the basic questions each and everyone puts forward when they happen to meet saints or Godmen. You can expect the answer from Upanishads, but to understand the subtle meaning of Upanishad one requires a teacher. The whole Hindu religious philosophy is basically built-up on three schools of thought. They are dwaita (dualism) founded by Sri Madhavacharya, vishisthadwaita(qualified non-dualism) founded by Sri Ramanujacharya and Adwaita (non-dualism) by Sri Adi Sankara. All three schools try to understand the term "God" in their own way. In order to sustain their Logic All three masters have commented on the main "Ten upanishads." I am trying to put below my understanding over these schools by using an example of our 3 states we experience in our daily lives. i.e. Waking state, dream state, deep sleep state. Dwaita: Founded by Sri Madhavacharya, this school teaches that God is other than you. That is God is existed as you are existed to the other person. For example,I am fully awake now and I can see the computer right in front of me. I can see and read the article I am writing now and I can hear the other persons around me, talking and disturbing me with their doubts. This kind of state can be illustrated to Dwaita. Dwaita advises to prostrate to God. Serve him humbly. You are a slave to him hence obey him what ever is his orders. Do not try to question him, because he clearly knows what he has to give to you. Many religions in this world fall into this dwaita category. A powerful example is Islam. During the time of difficulties a dwaiti (one who follows dwaita) thinks in this way: "What ever you do Oh lord! who am I to quarrel with thee? Does a picture ever quarrel with the painter?" - Swamy Chinmayananda. For more understanding of this dwaita school of thought one is recommended to read the commentaries on ten upanishads, by Sri Madhavacharya. Question does not arise, when we understand Dwaita and try to obey the things as they are. Dwaita has a great following, albeit, in this world each and every human is unique in his intellectual caliber. Hence, one may question "why should I prostrate to someone who unnecessarily pains me? Dictate things that I do not want to do? Actually, where is he?". Here, the reason fails and logic does not come to rescue dwaita. We can clearly see this in Islam. In islam God never comes in a human form. Since he is the almighty you can see him only during the judgment day. In Christianity you can see the same thinking in a different way "Jesus is Jehovah's son" that means, Jehovah is there somewhere. Something does not stand for reason. The dwaita school never accepts human reasoning. On contrary it says God is beyond reasoning. There comes Vishistadwaita in to picture. VishiSThadwaita: Sri Ramanujacharya, founder of Vishistadwaita school of thought, in his commentaries over 10 upanishads, says that "God is not a separate entity. Indeed, you are in him, but you are not him." This is pointed out even in Bhagawad Geeta. "Like the waves are in the ocean but ocean is not in the waves." How does one understand this?... Here is an example. Before entering into the deep sleep state we experience a state called dream state. In this state we dream a lot of things. If suppose, I wanted people around me should not disturb me and I should put this article in a more apprehending way. Since, I did not do it in the waking state in dream state I dream "the same computer, the people around me, the article I am writing" everything... as a part of me. That is, I can see everything inside me... I can see airplanes flying inside me. Logically, how can an airplane fit in a 5 foot 9 inches individual?... It is only possible during the dream. In the same way, Vishistadwaita teaches that you are a part of God's dream. You are a character that what ever he is dreaming. You are as if a small bubble in the Ocean called God. Hence, each and everything in this universe is a part of God. Here the question arises: Why is God dreaming? If he is dreaming, why should he dream different characters? Where is he? Where am I? Etceteras... Here comes to rescue the Adwaita of Sri Adisankara, which stands for Logic and gives clear understanding about oneself. Adwaita: Sri AdiSankara, the greatest philosopher and missionary ever seen in this world, is the advocate of this School of thought. You may wonder, then who founded this? Actually, I should say that Sri Yagnavalkya, the seer of Sri Sukla Yajurveda, founded this school. Awaita teaches that "you are God"... "Tat tvam asi," "that thou art". Before going to give an example to this, I should honestly accept that this example does not clearly stand as an example for Adwaita State. Eventually, I could not find something else. After the dream state we enter into a state called the "deep sleep state." In this state, neither the ego (i.e. `I'ness) existed nor the world. We experience, at least for a few minutes, absolute bliss. Since there is no ego over there we can neither explain nor understand what that state is, except from saying "sukhEna maya nidrA anubhootaya" means, "I slept very well." In case, if one does question about the happiness we experienced in deep sleep state, we fail in answering. In Bruhadranka Upanishad, the Seer says that it is indeed the very close state to your real state (your self). He illustrates a bird saying that "like a bird, tired and fatigued through out the day flying in the world withdraws it's wings and enters to take rest in it's nest, every being in this world tired of the daily life withdraws all it's senses and enters and takes rest in a State called deep sleep state that is very near to his Real state called as "satchitananda." The followers of Nondualism, tries to experience this state without sleeping. We call this state as "Samadhi." This is a state that can only be experienced but can't be explained. In adwaita God is nothing but absolute bliss. It is also said that when one experiences this "samadhi" he can understand that he is God and this world is a part of him. Since he is there the world is there. Since he can see, the Sun and the moon and the stars are there. Since he can perceive the nature is full of greens. If he is not there nothing is there. Perceiver is always superior than the perceived. Sri Adisankara while advocating this Nondualism says that "Since you are a part of this world and right now you are not in a state of understanding that you are God, you should follow the path of Bhakti (dwaita) and inquisition (VishisTadwaita). Adwaita (non-dualism) is a state that has to be realized. Until you realise you should practice"... And this practice is nothing but accepting dwaita and vishistadwaita. Realisation of "that thou Art" is the final goal. Bhagawat Geeta says "When one realises this state, everything in this world becomes equal to him." "Sunicaiva swapakEca paMDitAH samadarsinaH." Personally, I feel that this is a great school of thought that only can make us think of equanimity. When one realises that he is everything, this world and everyone in this world are a manifestation of himself, he feels no threat from the world. When there is no threat where is the fear,and when there is no fear everything is peaceful. When one is at peace he desires nothing, when one desires nothing he does not think of evil doings. Hence there is the great prayer in our Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
"asatOmA sadgamaya - Let me travel from ignorance to the knowledge"tamasOmA jyOtirgamaya - from darkness to the light""mrUtyOrmA amrutaMgamaya - and from death to the immortality" OM SaMtiH SaMtiH SaMtiH