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RE: Basics of the three schools of Vedanta

From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishna K • July 3, 2002 


Dear Mani,

--- In bhakti-list@y..., Mani Varadarajan  wrote:

> Visishtadvaita -- the individual self and supreme Self are

> Self. Just as the body and the individual self are different, yet
> the individual self is the very basis for the life of the body
> and pervades and controls it in all possible ways, the Supreme
> Self is the source, substratum, and very essence of the
> individual self and pervades and controls it in all possible

Can you pls explain this line more: Supreme Self is the very essence of individual self? The problem in understanding that is that any mapping to the world we know does not seem to be good. Like, No mango exists separate and different from mangoness and vice-versa(that's the problem). Even the above analogy of body vs soul does not convey that.

In your reply to tg_ram, you wrote:

>tataH anumatya'.  Broadly put, the Supreme Self, though no doubt
>capable of totally being in control, is at first neutral (udAsIna)
>regarding the activity at any particular instant of the individual
>self.  He waits for the individual to choose a course of action,
>as it were. Once the individual has decided on a particular course of
>action, the Supreme Self "permits" (anumatya) the individual to
>proceed and facilitates the course of action to continue.

Very basic questions:

(a) How would you answer this: Isn't the act of 'choosing a course of action' also another action? 
(b) How would you interpret Gita's reference to the Jiva as akartA (in 13.30), given that there is some space given to the jIva to act on its own here?
(c) Does the Lord know what the Jiva is going to choose? If no, He is not omniscient. If yes, why does He 'wait' for the choice to happen?

Thanks,
Krishna


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