Thus Spake the Divine - Shankara Sampradaya - 2

Thus Spake the Divine

Shankara Sampradaya

Buddha condemned Vedic Religion. He was totally against Yajnya-related rituals. He did not speak of God too. Therefore, Buddhism does not endorse either Karma or Bhakti. During Buddha’s period, Smartas were engaged in numerous Karmanushthana. To them, God was immaterial when they were meticulously adhering to Vedic Karmas as ordained under Vedas.

Thus, they confi ned themselves to Vedic Karmas. They were also known as “Purva Mimamsakas”. For Purva Mimamsakas, there is only Karma and no Bhakti or Jnyana. They are not in favour of Advaita Jnyana Marga, which preaches self-inquiry, disowning the whole gamut of Karma, renouncing worldly life, and remaining in constant meditation over absolute Truth (Brahmam).

Kumarila Bhatta was one of the staunch advocates of Purva Mimamsaka. He resurrected Vedic Karmas by strongly condemning Buddhist doctrines. His condemnation of Buddhism

was because it did not endorse the doctrine of Karma. There was another Mahan who condemned Buddhism for its absence of God and Bhakti. He was Udayanacharya. He was an exponent of the Nyaya Shastra. According to him, there must be an Ishvara who takes care of the worldly activities. He established this aspect through his logical debates and detailed writings.

Students under the present-day education system read about Buddhism and Buddha. Nowhere is there mention of Kumarila Bhatta or Udayanacharya. This was a deliberate design of the British. Their intention was to demean Vedic Religion, evangelise and convert people into Christianity. When they failed to convert them, they want only demeaned Vedic Religion. They did not want people ruled by them to be proud about their own culture and religion.

But the reality was that Hindus possessed an exemplary civilisation at the time when British were still in the process of establishing their civilisation. Thus, their plan to convert and make Hindus give up their own religion did not succeed. Amid such attempts by the British, the great Jnyanis of India set up an exemplary curriculum beginning right with the elementary school stage, so that impressionable minds did not go astray and followed their religion. That is why the British launched an exaggerated propaganda extolling Buddhism for being against the great souls of Vedic Religion. This was a meticulous design to prevent new generations from taking up their age-old Vedic Religion.

As a counter, while Kumarila Bhatta condemned Buddhism and re-established Veda as the foundation and corner-stone of Vedic Karmas, Udayanacharya castigated the Buddhist stand of there being “No God” and emphasized on existence of “God”. Only after Kumarila Bhatta and Udayanacharya resurrected the paths of Karma and Bhakti did our Bhagavadpada arrive on the scene to re-establish Jnyana Marga, thus bringing back the triumvirate of Karma-Bhakti-Jnyana.

Those who adopted Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita took the view that both Advaita and Buddhism were similar to Jnyana Marga school of thought and thus condemnable. They even went to the extent of depicting our own Acharya as a “Buddhist in disguise of an Advaitin (Prachanna Bauddha)!” This view is absolutely incorrect as while both Advaita and Buddhism proclaim that the ‘world is a Maya”, Advaita goes on to say that once the ultimate state of realisation (Jnyana) is reached, even Bhakti to God is relinquished. Utilising this to their advantage, both Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita schools tried to scandalously undermine our Acharya.

But if one contemplates deeper into this thought, he will realise their fallacy. While Advaita refers to the world as “Maya”, it does not completely endorse Buddhism, which refers to the world as “zero” or vacuum (Shunya). Acharya only proclaimed that the world is ‘transient’ and temporary and hence is a ‘seemingly and temporary truth’. Thus, it should not be mistaken for the ultimate truth. Alternately, when realisation dawns that the world is neither an absolute untruth that dissolves in Shunya, nor is it an absolute truth, we ourselves become the absolute Brahmam. What Buddhism advocates is that Moksha is a state of ‘nothingness’ or “Shunya”. But Acharya propounds that Moksha is a state of completeness (Purnam) with “absolute truth”, “absolute wisdom” and “absolute bliss” viz. Sat-chit-Ananda.

As such, Vishishtadvaitins and Dvaitins attempt to describe both Buddhism and Advaita doctrines as identical is absolutely wrong. What is unique about our Acharya? It is his magnanimity of accepting all philosophies and doctrines, while pointing out that all these eventually lead to one destination, which is the Jnyana Marga. Buddhists totally denounced Veda Karmas while Acharya strongly advocated Veda Karmas. His Upadesha Sara starts with the following verse, which highlights the signifi cance of Vedic Karmas.

This article is a snippet from the Book Thus Spake the Divine, is available online at www.giri.in and across Giri Trading Agency Private Limited, A chain of Specialty Stores dealing in all kinds of products needed in Indian Culture and Tradition.