What do the āgamās or sastras teach?
The teachings of the whole range of āgamās, Śrutis, Smṛtis. Itihāsas, Purāṇās, Brahmasūtras, Pāñcarātra and sayings of Āḻvārs and saints may be summarised to cover three topics, namely,
- tattva or truths,
- puruṣārtha or the goal to be reached, and
- upāya or means to attain the goal.
{phocadocumentation view=navigation|type=mpcn}
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ŚRI RĀMĀNUJĀ - VISIṢTADVAITA
written by Sri V.R. Srisaila Chakravarti
What do the āgamās or sastras teach?
The teachings of the whole range of āgamās, Śrutis, Smṛtis. Itihāsas, Purāṇās, Brahmasūtras, Pāñcarātra and sayings of Āḻvārs and saints may be summarised to cover three topics, namely,
- tattva or truths,
- puruṣārtha or the goal to be reached, and
- upāya or means to attain the goal.
What is, or rather, what ought to be our goal ?
Our goal is liberation from the bondage of material existence. Maitreyi, wife of sage Yajñavalkya, questioned him when he offered wealth to her at parting: “If all this earth with all its gems and wealth were mine without any dispute, can I become immortal?” And Yajñavalkya answered: "No, you could only live as wealthy persons live, and die as they die. Wealth does not bring immortality.” Maitreyi said: "'What shall I do with that which does not make me immortal? Tell me the means by which I become immortal. i.e. free from births and deaths.” Indra, the king of the gods, found no pleasure in heavenly kingdom, and leaving it, studied adhyātma-vidyā ,the science of self, for one hundred and one years at the feet of Prajāpati.
Narada, who was well-versed in all the Vedas, Itihāsas, Puraṇās, grammar, astronomy, mental and moral science, medicine, music, political science, and all other conceivable branches of learning, except ātma-vidyā or science of the self, in great grief for his ignorance in that branch of learning, approached Sanatkumāra and entreated him to initiate him into the mysteries of the self. Every one of us desires to get freedom from the cycle of births, deaths, rebirths and miseries of life and to get unalloyed bliss. The desire in some is very faint instinctively; in others, it is of varying degrees, according as the self-consciousness is developed with the stage and grade of evolution and intelligence. In a few, it is very acute and marked. He in whom this desire is intense and acute, almost to the exclusion of other desires, is called a mumukṣu. A mumukṣu or a person longing for release from the bondage of samsāra or material existence must necessarily know the three truths. All schools of philosophy recognize this necessity and agree in saying that freedom can be attained only by the knowledge of the truths. A person knowing the three truths,
- the enjoyer (the individual soul),
- the enjoyed (matter) and
- the controller of these two, namely God,
The three truths are:
- cit or individual soul called jiva, pratyagātmā, jivātmā, kṣetrajña, cetana and so on:
- matter, called prādhānā, avyakta, prakṛti, avidyā, māyā, acetana and so on, and
- Iśvara or the universal Soul, called Parabrahman, Paramātmā, Paramapuruṣa, Nārāyaṇa and so on.
By acit is meant the object in which consciousness or jñāa does not and cannot inhere.
By Iśvara is meant the Supreme Being, God who controls these two.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article is extracted from the book THE PHILOSOPHY OF ŚRI RĀMĀNUJĀ - VISIṢTADVAITA written by Sri V.R. Srisaila Chakravarti (Coimbatore) and published by V.S.R. Chakravarti, 24, Kasturi Ranga Iyengar Road, Madras - 18. The book is printed at Bharati Vijayam Press, Triplicane, Madras - 600 005 in the year 1974.
{phocadocumentation view=navigation|type=t}