[Advaita-l] Dvaita and Advaita

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003, Manikantan S wrote:

> NamasKaram,
>
> I have recently joined this group and i have a
> question to ask. i do not know if it is valid to ask
> this question, but i felt i want to.
>

Any question sincerely asked is a valid one!  (well relating to the
subject at hand that is.  We can't guarantee answers on income tax etc. :-)

However you should check the archives first to see if the question hasn't
already been discussed previously.  It would save everyone a lot of time.

> (Please forgive me if anything said here is wrong)
>
> All of us in this group discuss about Advaita, which
> according to Acharya is "Tat Tvam Asi". i feel that
> "Tat" here refers to (my)Atman.So according to Acharya
> , "this Atman" is nothing but "that Brahman" .
>
> But then we also have another school of thought which
> is Dvaita , which according to my knowledge, says that
> the "Atman" and "Brahman" are  2 different entities.
>
> i also heard  that it was the Acharya(ShankaraCharya),
> who gave Diksha to RamanujaCharya, who later came up
> with Dvaita.
>

No this is wrong.  All three were generations apart from each other.
And Ramanuja was an exponent of vishistadvaita not Dvaita (which was
Madhva.)

> And i feel both Acharya(ShankaraCharya) and
> RamujaCharya were GREAT Scholars but still there is
> absoulte contradiction in their Ideas ( thoughts) .
>

Yes they certainly disagree on many important issues.  However they do
agree on some issues too.

> How can we know who is correct? Is it somehow possible that Both are
> correct. or is it that ONE and ONLY ONE of these two contradicting
> things can be TRUE.
>

Well why not do some research and find out?

http://www.ramanuja.org/ - Vishishtadvaita Home Page
http://www.dvaita.org/   - Dvaita Home Page

They each also have a mailing list with searchable archives like this one.
You can compare and contrast their philosophies to see where and why they
differ with Advaita and where and why they agree.

I am a big proponent of followers of all the sampradayas learning about
each other.  From an Advaita point of view anything that decreases
ignorance has merit and should be encouraged.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/