DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0133
Vaisknavism. The Ramanuja Sect. 121
human soul on the divine, and urged the duty of striving
after complete, though conscious, union with the Supreme—
identified with Vishnu:—' Cut is the knot of man's heart,
solved are all his doubts, ended are all his works, when he
has beheld the Supreme Being1.'
A good account of Ramanuja's opinions is given by Dr. K.
M. Banerjea in his Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy. The
account is founded on extracts taken from the writings of
one of Ramanuja's disciples, and from Ramanuja's own work
on the Vedanta-sutras (called Sarlraka-bhashya).
We may suppose Ramanuja himself to be speaking as
follows :—
' All the Sastras tell us of two principles—knowledge and
ignorance, virtue and vice, truth and falsehood. Thus we
see pairs everywhere, and God and the human soul are also
so. How can they be one ? I am sometimes happy, some-
times miserable. He, the Spirit, is always happy. Such is
the discrimination. How then can two distinct substances
be identical ? He is an eternal Light, without anything to
obscure it—pure, the one superintendent of the world. But
the human soul is not so. Thus a thunder-bolt falls on
the tree of no-distinction. How canst thou, oh slow of
thought, say, I am He, who has established this immense
sphere of the universe in its fulness? Consider thine own
capacities with a candid mind. By the mercy of the Most
High a little understanding has been committed to thee.
It is not for thee, therefore, O perverse one, to say, I am
God. All the qualities of sovereignty and activity are eter-
nally God's. He is therefore a Being endowed with qualities
(saguna). How can He be devoid of qualities (nirguna) ?
Why, again, should this useless illusion be exercised? If
1 This is given in the Sarva-darsana-sangraha as one of Ramanuja's
precepts. Compare a similar precept at the end of the Kathopanishad.
I heard an excellent sermon on this text delivered by Professor Bhan-
darkar in the house of prayer of the Prarthana-Samaj in Bombay.
human soul on the divine, and urged the duty of striving
after complete, though conscious, union with the Supreme—
identified with Vishnu:—' Cut is the knot of man's heart,
solved are all his doubts, ended are all his works, when he
has beheld the Supreme Being1.'
A good account of Ramanuja's opinions is given by Dr. K.
M. Banerjea in his Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy. The
account is founded on extracts taken from the writings of
one of Ramanuja's disciples, and from Ramanuja's own work
on the Vedanta-sutras (called Sarlraka-bhashya).
We may suppose Ramanuja himself to be speaking as
follows :—
' All the Sastras tell us of two principles—knowledge and
ignorance, virtue and vice, truth and falsehood. Thus we
see pairs everywhere, and God and the human soul are also
so. How can they be one ? I am sometimes happy, some-
times miserable. He, the Spirit, is always happy. Such is
the discrimination. How then can two distinct substances
be identical ? He is an eternal Light, without anything to
obscure it—pure, the one superintendent of the world. But
the human soul is not so. Thus a thunder-bolt falls on
the tree of no-distinction. How canst thou, oh slow of
thought, say, I am He, who has established this immense
sphere of the universe in its fulness? Consider thine own
capacities with a candid mind. By the mercy of the Most
High a little understanding has been committed to thee.
It is not for thee, therefore, O perverse one, to say, I am
God. All the qualities of sovereignty and activity are eter-
nally God's. He is therefore a Being endowed with qualities
(saguna). How can He be devoid of qualities (nirguna) ?
Why, again, should this useless illusion be exercised? If
1 This is given in the Sarva-darsana-sangraha as one of Ramanuja's
precepts. Compare a similar precept at the end of the Kathopanishad.
I heard an excellent sermon on this text delivered by Professor Bhan-
darkar in the house of prayer of the Prarthana-Samaj in Bombay.