Cause of Creation

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

--- Vaidya Sundaram <vaidya_sundaram at HOTMAIL.COM> wrote:
> Namaskaram.
>  I am interested in knowing what the dvaitins and visishtadvaitins
> postulate
> as the cause of creation. Any pointers or brief writeups would
> greatly help.
> Thanks in advance.
>
> bhava shankara desikame sharaNam
> Vaidya.

Vaidya

As I understand

>From the vishishhTaadvaita point.

Creation is considered as Liila Vibhuuti - NarayaNa is the supreme
purusha - Iswara and also Brahman - Brahman and Iswara are considered
are one and the same and He is both nimmitta kaarana and Upaadana
kaarana - the intelligent and material cuases for creation. He is
saguNa brahman since there is nothing like nirguNa in this creation.
There are three entities that are eternally existent - paramaatma
that is NarayaNa, jiva-s - these two are chaitanya vastu-s -
conscious entities and third is the jada or inert vastu - the
universe.  VishishhTaadvaita also subscribes to avidya or ignorance
as the motivating factor for creation and it is anaadi or
beginningless.  This ignorance is mostly for jiiva-s - ignorance of
not knowing his own nature of limitedness, not knowing the
infiniteness of the Lord and not knowing the sesha-seshi bhaava -
that is he is dependent on the Lord for everything while Lord is
independent of everything.  This is the ignorance of the jiiva.
Before the creation, both jiiva-s and jagat are in a subtle state.
Out of pure compassion for the jiiva-s who are lost to anaadi avidya,
Lord grossifies the jada prakriti and jiiva-s - that is creation.
Jiiva-s because of lack of proper knowledge of his true nature -
sesha-seshi bhaava - thinks he is the controller and gets involved
with the prakritit and get entangled in the karma - and vasana chain.
 Knowledge of the scriptures with proper teacher will help understand
the problem and makes the jiiva to recognize the importance of
surrenderane to the Lord - that is prapatti - when he surrenders
completely, out of compassion, Lord uplifts the jiiva and takes him
in to his divya vibuuti where he is free from all entanglements and
enjoys the infinite happiness that Lord is enjoying. Jiiva is tiny in
size but can enjoy infinite happiness due to grace of Iswara. Of
course Lakshmi, the mother is the one who embraces her kid, and
presents to the Lord (after cleaning) and recommends the Lord to have
a compassion to this lost child.  Hence mother Shree is very
important to approach the Lord.

In the sadeva soumya prakaraNa of Ch.Up.  vishishhTaadvaita agrees
with advaitins that there is sajaati and vijaati bheda-s but they
argue that it has swagata bheda-s or internal differences - that
existence which is pictured as universal person, has internal
differences - constituting, jiiva-s and jada prakriti as part of the
body but different from paramaatma - from the total vishvaruupa they
are all one in terms of part of the totality - hence -advaita, but
that is vishishhTa, qualified in the sense - one with many internal
components.

Dwaita:

Frankly I never understood or appreciated this concept.  In this
NarayaNa is not the upaadana kaaraNa - he is only nimitta kaaraNa.
The rest are same except the jiiva-s and jadam are not part of the
Lord.  Also there is a gradation in jiiva-s.  Like vessels of
different sizes.  The ananda in Moksha is the fulfillment of
one'slife  and it is like the your vessel is full with hapinness to
the rim.  Since size of the vessels are different there is also
gradation in the happiness of each jiiva in moksha -even though each
one is full. Hanumaan is considered as very high in the ladder and
Madhva chaara is considered as the incarnation of Hanumaan. On the
same token there are jiiva-s which are eternal damnation - this
concept may be little difficult to appreciate.  But that is so.  But
my understanding of dvaita is lowest most of their texts spend more
time criticizing maayavaada of Shankara than explaining their own
theories.

Pouraanic stories of creation:  Puruana-s are not pramaaNa from the
Vedantic knowledge.  Most of them are meant for developing bhakti for
their ishTadevata.  There are supposed to be 80+ theories of
creation.  Contradictions are inherent in these because of this.
Advaita considers contradictions are inherent in the system of
explanation since there is nothing really to explain. What
explanation can be provided for that which is not real.  Any
explanation which is in the realm of thoughts is only provided to
satisfy the seeker so that he can pursue the sadhana further.
Ultimately when there is one without a second, any expiation for
apparent duality is only for satisfying the curiosity of the seeker.
Veda-s form the basic pramaaNa, next Bhagavad Geeta.  Brahmasuutra
written by Badarayana is considered as pramaaNa but it is a later
addition and it gained its importance since many have written
bhaashya-s on it.

Other puraaNa-s are considered as later addition to glorify a
particular God.

Hari OM!
Sadananda

=====
What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your gift to Him - Swami Chinmayananda.

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