Ramanuja's Summary of the Advaitin's Position - 1

[kalyan chakravarthy]

Namaskaaram Sri Jayanarayanan ji,

>Just one more doubt -- are the following points made
>by Ramanuja in his "Summary of the advaitin's
>position" true at all?
>
>(1) "nirguNa texts are of greater force than saguNa
>texts."
>Ramanuja claims that, according to the advaitin, the
>shruti texts describing Brahman as nirguNa occur
>subsequent to those that describe Brahman as saguNa.
>Now, since the "latter" always sublates the "former",
>the nirguNa texts are of "greater force" ("more
>valid"?) than saguNa texts.

Such a criticism of vishishTa advaita against advaita, if true, is invalid.
The most important idea for nirguNa brahman comes from the *neti neti* of
the brihadAraNyaka upanishad. THE UPANISHAD ITSELF SAYS THAT THERE IS NO
BETTER DESCRIPTION THAN THIS. Which means, other descriptions like *satyam
jnanam anantam brahma*(found in the taittiriya upanishad) must be second
best.(Is there any other way?) Otherwise sruti will be contradicting itself.
Thus, any allegation against advaitin in this matter amounts to allegation
against the brihadAraNyaka upanishad itself. :-)

>(2) "Scriptures are of greater force as against direct
>perception".
>Manifoldness is perceived due to beginningless and
>*defective* avidya. Scripture is beginningless and
>*defect-free*, hence it can sublate this knowledge of
>manifoldness (basically because avidya is defective
>and scripture is not).

Sri Adi Shankara says that thousands of sruti statements cannot make a black
crow white. Sruti never says anything that contradicts our sense experience.
It talks about stuff which are BEYOND our sense experience. Afterall if
sruti just repeats what we perceive, then what is the use of
sruti?????????????????

I believe other learned members of this forum can throw more light on this
matter.

Best Regards
Kalyan

_________________________________________________________________
Calling NRIs! Send money home in a jiffy.
http://server1.msn.co.in/msnleads/citibankrca/index.asp Sign up now!