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Re: 'Akshara' etc. in the BhG

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Martin Gansten • April 10, 2002 


I didn't intend to write any more on this either, but on consideration, a
few clarifications may be in place.

First, I should like to say a word or two of where I'm coming from. As you
can tell by my name, I am not (like most active members of this list) an
'ethnic' Sri Vaishnava, though Hindu thought in general has occupied my
mind for more than twenty years. Having taken pancasamskara from Sri
Rangapriya Swami of Bangalore a few years ago, I am now a Sri Vaishnava by
initiation and practice; but I was a Sanskritist and an historian of
religion first, and maintain a (secular) scholar's perspective in certain
ways.

One instance of this perspective is the scholarly [hyper]sensitivity to
eisegesis, that is, reading things *into* a text rather than *out of* it
(exegesis). Now, to some degree all theologians (of whatever religion)
always do this: it is in the nature of a systematic theology. But when
eisegesis is carried beyond a certain point, so that the general tenor of
the reading begins to differ significantly from that of the text itself, I
cannot help feeling that the text is being violated.

In general, I find that Ramanuja's eisegesis, particularly of the BhG,
takes the form of exaggeration: overstating a tendency which is already in
the text. (For instance: the BhG clearly advocates karmayoga over
jnanayoga. Ramanuja overstates this case to the point where jnanayoga is
said to be possible only for disincarnate beings!) With some other acaryas,
I find that the tendency is often to argue *against* the tenor of the text,
with 'ingenious usage of grammar', as pointed out by our Moderator.

Having said this, I would like to comment on the following two related
questions:

>If the former, it is against one's experience
>that the collective of Jivas is the referrent of 'yayA idam dhAryate jagat'
>(by that which the world is held); if the latter, it is never the case that
>an abstract entity *supports* concrete stuff. 
>Another point, not yet answered, is that if everything is the Lord
>svabhAva, what's the point in the Lord claiming Himself to be superior to
>everything else in the next verse?

On Ramanuja's view, the world is in fact dependent on the individual self,
which in turn is dependent on God; therefore everything ultimately depends
on God, making Him superior to everything else. One may in fact turn the
tables and say: if the self and the world are *not* materially dependent on
God, but eternally and absolutely separate categories, then what is the
point in claiming His superiority?

The relevant points are most clearly brought out in Vedarthasamgraha 17:
'The individual self has brahman for its own self, for the self is a
modification of brahman because it constitutes his body, as appears from
another sruti: ..."whose body is the self", etc. The non-conscious entities
in the generic structures of a god, a man etc. are modifications of this
same individual self -- which is a modification of brahman himself --
because they constitute the self's body.' A few paragraphs later, in VAS
22, Ramanuja adds: 'The demonstration that all is an effect of brahman
furnishes proof that that all has reality of itself in so far as it has
brahman for its self, and not otherwise.' (Slightly edited version of van
Buitenen's translation.)

Finally, regarding the meaning of kshara in BhG 15.16, I would like to
clarify that my preferred option all along has been to understand 'sarvani
bhutani' in the light of 7.6: 'all creatures' in the sense of a combination
of body and soul. I see no conflict between this and Ramanuja's gloss
ksharana-svabhava-acit-samsrishta-sarva-bhutani; in fact, the meaning seems
to me identical. As for meditation on the self, sruti and smriti are full
to overflowing of vakyas supporting it; but as I anticipate that you would
construe 'self' (atman) in every case to refer to paramatman, I will not
bother to cite any.

Ramanuja Dasa,
MG



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