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Re: Digest Number 563 ( Once upon a time... )

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mani2 • March 20, 2002 


--- In bhakti-list@y..., Ramkumar Gopalaswamy  wrote:
> Since the Supreme Being is both saguNa and nirguNa 
> simultaneously, one might ask - why would the puraaNic verse 
> above explictly mention 'saguNa' ?

Dear Ramkumar,

I believe the vAkya quoted Maruthi was from the Sribhashya
itself and not from Sri Vishnu Purana.  Sri Ramanuja is
saying that by definition the Supreme Being always has 
qualities (sa-guNa).

He is 'saguNa' in that He has all manner of auspicious and
edifying attributes, such as infinite consciousness, infinitude,
His being eternally true, infinitely blissful, etc.  He is
also saguNa in that the mass of jIvas and prakRti are in
an adjectival relation to Him.  He is 'nirguNa' because He
is unaffected by and absolutely bereft of the three material
guNas in His essence or svarUpa, and in His divine manifestations.

A confusion typically arises in the usage of the term 'nirguNa'.
We accept that the Supreme Being is nirguNa in the sense as
described above.  The Advaitins including Sri Sankara define
nirguNa as meaning totally devoid of any distinctions or
attributes whatsoever.  In Advaita, if someone describes the
nirguNa brahman as being true, infinite, and blissful, it
is only understood as denying falsity or unreality, finitude,
and misery to brahman.  To Advaitins it does not mean that
the nirguNa brahman actually has the qualities of truth, 
infinitude, and bliss, since by definition It cannot be
said to have *any* qualities.

To avoid this confusion, Dr. S.M. Srinivasa Chari mentioned 
to me that the great Sribhashya exponent Sri Abhinava Ranganatha 
Parakala Swami preferred to describe the Advaita doctrine
as 'nirvisesha brahman' (brahman without any *attributes* 
whatsoever) rather than 'nirguNa', since the word 'guNa'
has many meanings, many of which we in the Visishtadvaita 
school accept as well.  We then can speak freely of the
Visishta Brahman as being truly nirguNa as well.

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,
Mani



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