DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0136
124 Vaishnavism. The Ramamija Sect.
the internal Spirit enshrined in his own heart, Vishnu
identified with that Spirit raises him to his own heaven
Vaikuntha, whence there is no return to human existence,
and where he enjoys the exquisite bliss of conscious assimi-
lation to the God whom he has adored on earth, and even
of conscious absorption into that God \ Possibly this theory
of conscious absorption may constitute another reason for
attributing the doctrine called ' qualified non-duality' (visishta-
dvaita) to Ramanuja. Nevertheless the impression left on
the mind by the account of his system in the Sarva-darsana-
sangraha is that Ramanuja was even more opposed to the
doctrine of unity in regard to the divine and human souls
than his brother sectarian Madhva. This impression is borne
out by the fact that his system is treated of before that of
Madhva, and so placed lower down in that ascending scale
which is supposed to culminate in the orthodox Advaita.
Probably the real reason for its being so placed is that he
asserts three principles—the Spirit of God, the spirit of man,
and the visible world—as his first axiom, whereas Madhva
only asserts two (see p. 131).
After Ramanuja's death, his numerous followers corrupted
his teaching in the usual manner, introducing doctrines
and practices which the founder of the sect had not en-
joined and would not have sanctioned. Then, about six
hundred years ago, a learned Brahman of Kanjivaram,
named Vedantacarya, put himself forward as a reformer,
giving out that he was commissioned by the god Vishnu
himself to purify the faith—to sweep away corrupt incrusta-
tions, and restore the doctrines of the original founder. These
doctrines, he affirmed, had been more carefully preserved
by the Northern Brahmans than by those in the South.
Hence arose irreconcilable differences of opinion, which
resulted in two great antagonistic parties of Ramanujas—
1 See Sarva-darsana-sangraha (Prof. A. E. Gough's translation of the
Ramanuja system), p. 79.
the internal Spirit enshrined in his own heart, Vishnu
identified with that Spirit raises him to his own heaven
Vaikuntha, whence there is no return to human existence,
and where he enjoys the exquisite bliss of conscious assimi-
lation to the God whom he has adored on earth, and even
of conscious absorption into that God \ Possibly this theory
of conscious absorption may constitute another reason for
attributing the doctrine called ' qualified non-duality' (visishta-
dvaita) to Ramanuja. Nevertheless the impression left on
the mind by the account of his system in the Sarva-darsana-
sangraha is that Ramanuja was even more opposed to the
doctrine of unity in regard to the divine and human souls
than his brother sectarian Madhva. This impression is borne
out by the fact that his system is treated of before that of
Madhva, and so placed lower down in that ascending scale
which is supposed to culminate in the orthodox Advaita.
Probably the real reason for its being so placed is that he
asserts three principles—the Spirit of God, the spirit of man,
and the visible world—as his first axiom, whereas Madhva
only asserts two (see p. 131).
After Ramanuja's death, his numerous followers corrupted
his teaching in the usual manner, introducing doctrines
and practices which the founder of the sect had not en-
joined and would not have sanctioned. Then, about six
hundred years ago, a learned Brahman of Kanjivaram,
named Vedantacarya, put himself forward as a reformer,
giving out that he was commissioned by the god Vishnu
himself to purify the faith—to sweep away corrupt incrusta-
tions, and restore the doctrines of the original founder. These
doctrines, he affirmed, had been more carefully preserved
by the Northern Brahmans than by those in the South.
Hence arose irreconcilable differences of opinion, which
resulted in two great antagonistic parties of Ramanujas—
1 See Sarva-darsana-sangraha (Prof. A. E. Gough's translation of the
Ramanuja system), p. 79.