Vishishtadwaitam a Hindu School of Philosophy

Vishishtadwaitam means qualified non-dualism. Dualism means that there exist two opposing powers. For example God and Satan in the Christian religion are opposing powers. God represents good whereas the evil is represented by Satan. There is a constant struggle between the good and the bad forces for dominance. This is called dualism.

Non-dualism means that there is only one Supreme Power. There is no other power which can even try to control this Supreme Power. How can we differentiate between human acts and divine acts? How can we differentiate His acts especially from the acts of evil doers if there is no other power used to denote the demoniac powers? After God created, He gave us freedom to choose between good and bad. Depending on our choice, karmas are accumulated which further incite us to make certain choices. God only exists as an observer. He doesn’t take part in our actions and He does not incite us to do the actions as well. When we say that we act per God’s will it means that God has willed for us to act per our past karmas. Even if we do a small good deed, God helps us to perform further good deeds so that we can break away from our bad habits. In Hinduism there is no concept called “devil” as there simply does not exist any force which can conquer or even try to conquer God.

The Hindu schools of philosophy Adwaitam and Vishishtadwaitam preach non-dualism. The main differences between Adwaitam and Vishishtadwaitam lie in the manner in which they view the Supreme Power as well as in the creation theory.

According to Adwaitam, the Supreme Power has no qualities like intelligence. The ultimate truth is called the Brahmam which is the Supreme Power. There are no living or non-living matter. What we see as humans, animals, trees, paper etc are illusion. Creation took place out of nothing and is a result of nescience or ignorance. Everything we see around us including ourselves is the Supreme Brahmam. Realizing this and meditating on the Brahmam as our soul leads to moksha or emancipation.

The concepts of Vishitadwaitam refute the theories of Adwaitam. Vishitadwaitins do not agree that creation took place out of nothing. How can anything be created from nothing? According to the laws of conservation of mass and energy, neither mass nor energy can be created or destroyed. They can only be changed from one form to another. If we see a terracotta pot we know that it was initially clay and was transformed into a pot by a potter. Similarly a gold ornament existed in the form of pure gold. Similarly the Universe as we see now had an earlier form. It has only been transformed into its current form. We call this transformation as creation.

Creation is also not the result of nescience. Per the Adwaitin’s theory, Brahmam is the only truth and nothing else exist other than Brahmam. If creation is the result of nescience then we have to take Brahmam as the creator and this statement implies that Brahmam is ignorant. Ignorance is a quality and goes against the Adwaitin’s concept of a Brahmam without qualities. Moreover how can an ignorant Brahmam be the ultimate truth? The ultimate truth is called as the ultimate knowledge; how can we equate ultimate knowledge to ignorance?

The Adwaitins state that everything we see around us is Brahmam and that there are no separate living or non-living forms. Each entity is Brahmam but thinks that it is different from Brahmam because it is ignorant and suffers from confusions. This statement also implies that Brahmam is ignorant and the various forms we see arise because Brahmam is confused. How can an ignorant and confused Brahmam be the refuge to all? We can also use Bagawad Geetha to disprove the statement of the Adwaitins. Lord Krishna preached Bagawad Geetha to Arjuna. If we take that Lord Krishna and Arjuna are the same entity called the Brahmam, then they are one and the same; this either makes Lord Krishna an hallucination seen by Arjuna or Arjuna a hallucination seen by Lord Krishna. If Lord Krishna is the only true entity here then, He is speaking to Himself; this  makes Him a madman and we cannot accept the teachings of a madman. If Arjuna is the only true  entity then this makes Krishna a hallucination; how can anyone trust the words of a hallucination? In reality Lord Krishna and Arjuna are separate entities. Lord Krishna is Paramatma and Arjuna is jeevatma. Not only this but Lord Krishna also refers to the people gathered at the battle field in plural form(in Sanskrit there is singular used to refer to qty 1, dual used to indicate qty of 2 and plural used to refer to more than 2 quantities) proving that there are many jeevatmas.

Thus all of the following exist forever. They are Paramatma, Jeevatma also called as chit and achit(non-living matter). Creation takes place because Paramatma wishes to create. (please refer to my postings on Tat Tvam Asi to read in detail about the process of creation, apocalypse and the reason why this Universe is created. http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2012/09/explanation-of-upanishadic-verse-tat.html#!/2012/09/explanation-of-upanishadic-verse-tat.html)

The Supreme Power is God.  He is full of good qualities. He is compassionate, intelligent and powerful. He is the only Supreme Power. This is why Vishitadwaitam is qualified non-dualism ie believing in one Supreme Power brimming with good qualities. If someone says that He is devoid of qualities then it can only mean that He is devoid of bad qualities.