[Advaita-l] {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Advaita vs Visistadvaita summary by Vasudeva Abhyankar Shastri

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Subbu ji.


> In the pdf attached to the first post of this thread, the VA item no.32
> says  मुक्तावपि जीवब्रह्मणोर्भेदोऽस्त्येव | The jiva-Brahman difference
> persists in mukti too.  So, they do not accept abheda.
>

Indeed. Their siddhAnta is that two distinct vastu can never have identity.
Since jIva and visheshya-Brahman are distinct vastu, this distinction
continues in mukti also.

However, they hold that jIva and jaDa being sharIra of visheshya-Brahman
(which is sharIrI), jIva and jaDa are non-separate (aprithak) from
visheshya-Brahman. No jIva can ever situate separately from
visheshya-Brahman. This aprithak-tva (अपृथक्-त्व)  is what is called by
them as abhinnatva (non-distinction). So, they say that jIva and Brahman
are abhinna. Not in the sense of identity which advaita holds, but in the
sense of non-separateness. That is how they reconcile abheda-Shruti.

So, the jagat is also different from Brahman.
>

Yes. Different but not separate.

The jiva and jagat are not atyanta bhinna from Brahman as in Dvaita but
> bhinna and abhinna from diff standpoints.
>

Not very sure about the meaning of the word "atyanta-bhinna". If exclusive
existence is also connoted by "atyanta-bhinna", then true, jIva-jagat are
not atyanta-bhinna. I am not sure that Dvaita accepts prithak-existence of
jIva and jagat.

The distinction between visheshya and visheshaNa is very real in
VishishTAdvaita. However, to explain the Shrutis, they sometimes bring
visheshya-Brahman which is kUTastha, immutable and sometimes
vishishTa-Brahman, who is mutable through visheshaNa.

The relationship between visheshya and visheshaNa is sharIra-Atma-bhAva.

Their whole model is based on following ghaTaka-Shruti -- "यस्य पृथिवी
शरीरम्" and "यस्य आत्मा शरीरम्". Through this, the bheda-Shruti and
abheda-Shruti are reconciled by them.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.