Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2Eliot, Charles
Religion
Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
Eliot, Charles
Asia -- Religion; Buddhism; Hinduism
I shall treat elsewhere of his philosophy, known as the
Viśishṭâdvaita or non-duality, which yet recognizes a distinction
between God and individual souls. The line of thought is old and at
all periods is clearly a compromise, unwilling to deny that God is
everything and yet dissatisfied with the idea that a personal deity
and our individual transmigrating souls are all merely illusion.
Devotional theism was growing in Râmânuja's time. He could not break
with the Upanishads and Vedantic tradition but he adapted them to the
needs of his day. He taught firstly that the material world and human
souls are not illusion but so to speak the body of God who comprises
and pervades them: secondly this God is omniscient, omnipresent,
almighty and all-merciful, and salvation (that is mukti or deliverance
from transmigration) is obtained by those souls who, assisted by his
grace, meditate on him and know him; thirdly this salvation consists
not in absorption into God but in blissful existence near him and in
participation of his glorious qualities. He further held[587] that God
exists in five modes, namely: (_a_) Para, the entire supreme spirit,
(_b_) the fourfold manifestation as Vâsudeva, Saṅkarshaṇa, Pradyumna
and Aniruddha, (_c_) incarnations such as Râma and Kṛishṇa, (_d_)
the internal controller or Antaryâmin according to the text[588] "who
abiding in the soul rules the soul within," (_e_) duly consecrated
images.
The followers of Râmânuja are at present divided into two schools
known as Tengalais and Vadagalais, or southern and northern.[589] The
double residence of the founder is one reason for the division, since
both Mysore and Trichinopoly could claim to have personal knowledge of
his teaching. The really important difference seems to be that the
Tengalai or southern school is inclined to break away from Sanskrit
tradition, to ignore the Vedas in practice and to regard the Tamil
Nâlâyiram as an all-sufficient scripture, whereas the Vadagalais,
though not rejecting the Nâlâyiram, insist on the authority of the
Vedas. But both divisions are scrupulous about caste observances and
the ceremonial purity of their food. They are separated by nice
questions of doctrine, especially as to the nature of prapatti,
resignation or self-surrender to the deity, a sentiment slightly
different from bhakti which is active faith or devotion. The
northerners hold that the soul lays hold of the Lord, as the young
monkey hangs on to its mother, whereas the southerners say that the
Lord picks up the helpless and passive soul as a cat picks up a
kitten.[590] According to the northerners, the consort of Vishṇu is,
like him, uncreated and equally to be worshipped as a bestower of
grace: according to the southerners she is created and, though divine,
merely a mediator or channel of the Lord's grace. Even more important
in popular esteem is the fact that the Vadagalai sectarian mark ends
between the eyebrows whereas the Tengalais prolong it to the tip of
the nose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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