Search:
Bhakti List Archives

Re: Attribute, Mode of Brahman ?

From the Bhakti List Archives

Martin Gansten • March 12, 2002 


I am very happy to see a refocussing on the teachings of Ramanuja on this
list. Regarding Sri Srinivasan's question on the meaning of 'attribute'
(vishesha) and 'mode' (prakaara) in Ramanuja's theology, here is my
understanding:

In Vedarthasangraha (§17), Ramanuja states: 'The individual self has
Brahman for its self, for it is a mode (prakaara) of Brahman because it
constitutes His body, as appears from another shruti: "whose body is the
self", etc.' Then, in §22, he says: 'The demonstration that all is an
effect (kaarya) of Brahman furnishes proof that that all has reality of
itself in so far as it has Brahman for its self and not otherwise. Hence it
is declared: tat satyam "that is real", just as in the illustrative example
every transmutation of clay is real because it remains essentially clay.'

It therefore seems clear that 'mode' to Ramanuja implies the state of being
the 'body' or form of Brahman, which expression in turn implies a material
causality. In the example of clay and its products, pots etc. are modes of
clay because they are the forms or 'bodies' taken by the clay. Put the
other way around, clay is the 'self' or substance of pots, etc. Hence we
might say that the pot (or rather, its pot-ness) is an attribute of the
substance clay. These various designations are just different ways of
trying to express a single reality.

The VAS quotations above are based on van Buitenen's translation (1956),
slightly amended.

Ramanuja Dasa,
Martin Gansten



--------------------------------------------------------------
           - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH -
To Post a message, send it to:   bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com
Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/
 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/