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mutual exclusion

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Tripace R&D (Chennai Office) • July 8, 1999 


	srimathe ramanujaya namaha
		srimathe thuppul vedantha desikaya namaha
		srimathe srivan satakopa sriman narayana yateendra mahadesikaya namaha


		lakshmi natha samaarambaam naada-yamuna madhyamaam
		asmath acharya paryanthaam vandhe guru paramparaam

Dear bhagavathas,


Adiyen would like to add on to the discussion on mutual exclusion of three
philosphies of advaita,dwaita and visishtadwaita.

While it's history that only emperumaanar's bhaashyaa is hailed as
sribaashaya ,the other
two bhaashyaas have their own author-names appended to the bhaashya
sabda.,ie)sankara-bhaashya and
madwa-bhaashya.It is also history that ,sri saraswati devi,in kashmir,
honoured emperumaanar with an idol
of Lord sri hayagriva,and gave the "sri bhaashya" its due title.The sri
hayagriva idol,later
was ,passed in disciplinic successsion to "nadaathur azhvaan",and then to
swami sri Desikan.
Today we find the same Lord sri hayagriva ,still with our parakala mutt
swami.It is only to
substatiate,that emperumaanar's work has divine authentication.


Now coming to the philosophy of visishtadwaita or qualified monism,it is in
more ways than
one ,closer to adwaita.It is true that emperumaanar's doctrine ,is not mere
philosophy alone.
It also includes,the supremacy of the one and only bhagwan
sriman-narayana.In fact visishtadwaita
sampradaya is close to madhwa sampradaya ,since sri madhwacharya also
declares unilaterally,the
supremacy of sri mahavishnu.so,vishtadwaita in contrast to adwaita is both
a philosophy and a theology
in one.

secondly,emperumaanar and swami Desikan strongly refute the doctrine of
Maaya and we srivaishnavaas
say "Jagat sathyam",this world is real ,they are all appendages og the
saguna brahmam-sriman-naraayana,
whereas to the adwaitha school the world is Mayaa,the brahmam is devoid of
Gunaas,Nirgunam,and all
the mummuurthis,siva ,vishnu and brahma are all one and the same parabrahmam.

It is clear that the three doctrines of adwaitha,dwaita and visishtadwaita
are not totally mutually
exclusive.Everybody holds ,that there is a parabrahmam or sat.(Ekam sat
viprah bahudaa vadanthi-Truth is one,The learned speak of it in many ways).

The real contention is with respect to the individual soul visavis the
paramaatma.In the dwaita school
the Jivaatma is eternally separate and subservient to the Lord or
paramaatma and the world is real.so in
a sense dwaita and adwaita are mutually exclusive.

But in many ways visihtadwaita is close to the doctrine of adwaita.Only
that there is no mayaavada and the nirguna brahmam is replaced with saguna
sriman-narayana.
we are all extensions of Naraayana,just as the hands and legs of our body
are attached to us and are part 
of us.so even emperumanaar's doctrine is adwaita only.Only that
sriman-narayana is ever brimming with
all kalyana gunaas.

Regarding the vedas being beginningless and endless,adiyeen would like to
add that,that in reality the few saakhaas we have in existence today are
not to be construed as the end of the book.The vedas are sruuthis,never to
be written down,the various rishis mentioned in them are only "mantra
dhraashtaas",there was no creator including brahma.They are the life and
breath of srimannarayana.
It is only krishna dwaipayana or bhadarayana or veda vyasa ,gave us the
vedas in codified,he being an
avataara of srihari(vyasaya vishnu ruupaya ,vyasa ruupaya vishnave)

sarvam sri krishnaarpanam.

			srimathe ramanujaya namaha.
			
Regards and salutations
to all bhagawatas

Ravi Desikan


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