Teach me about Vishishtadvaita.

[Spirit Seeker]

Hi can anyone give me a brief summary of the beliefs & fundamentals of Vishishtadvaita ?

Any links or sources would be great too...

[Spirit Seeker]

Still seeking to learn here if anyone is willing.

[Viraja]

I downloaded the e-book quoted in http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1007 message #3 by Saidevo ji. I have been wanting to learn about Vishishtadvaita too for sometime now, this book seems comprehensive.

[philosoraptor]

An excellent book written just for beginners is A Dialogue on Hinduism by V.N. Gopala Desikan. It is published by the Vishishtadvaita Research Centre. It is written in a very simple Q&A format which covers all the essentials in a very easy-to-understand, yet reasonably comprehensive format. Unfortunately, like many of VRC's books, you probably won't be able to find it on Amazon. You may need to locate their contact info yourself or try various Indian booksellers like exoticindia, dkagencies, or printasia.

Another good book is Visistadvaita by A.S. Raghavan. This was published by TTD in 1985, and so it may no longer be in print. It is more in-depth than the Dialogue book but reasonably comprehensive. I wish it quoted shruti more, but since its aim is to educate on the fundamentals of visistadvaita rather than refute other systems, it still does a good job.

You can also check Amazon.com for any of S.M.S. Chari's books. He is a scholar who has written books for a more scholarly bent, but he is an insider to the tradition. There is a Bhagavad-Gita translation with Ramanuja's commentary published by Ramakrishna Mission and translated by Swami Adidevananda. It is a decent effort, but the translator could probably have done a better job making the commentary more digestible to the average reader.

There are also 2 sets of 108 E-books published on the internet, but these are mostly for insiders and may not be basic enough for an outsider to understand. Still, they are free. I checked my links to the websites and they appear to be down. Will repost them if I find the new locations.

[Viraja]

Philosoraptor,

So both the books are out of reach unless we can find them after some research? I noticed the book I downloaded from the other link is about 600 pages long, I would love to have a smaller book, actually it need not have to take that many pages to learn the basics of VA principle, IMO. Any shorter version for easy read to begin with, will be much appreciated.

[satay]

namaste,
I actually love Dr. Chari's books. I find him to be a reasonable, logical person and he has a great writing style.

I agree with you re Adidevananda's translation. It is a bit dry for a casual/average student like me.

You can also check Amazon.com for any of S.M.S. Chari's books. He is a scholar who has written books for a more scholarly bent, but he is an insider to the tradition. There is a Bhagavad-Gita translation with Ramanuja's commentary published by Ramakrishna Mission and translated by Swami Adidevananda. It is a decent effort, but the translator could probably have done a better job making the commentary more digestible to the average reader.

[Viraja]

I just ordered 'Fundamentals of Visistadvaita Vedanta' by S.M.Srinivasa Chari through AbeBooks for $18 (free shipping). At Amazon, the same book costed $48! I don't understand this price difference, both are new books. Anyway, eagerly looking forward to understand Visistadvaita..

[wundermonk]

Hi can anyone give me a brief summary of the beliefs & fundamentals of Vishishtadvaita ?

Visishtadvaita [VA] traces itself to Vedas/Upanishads/Puranas. It aims at reconciling the simultaneous immanence and absolutism of God. Per VA, God is at once immutable and yet capable of delivering suffering selves out of mercy.

VA differs from Advaita in that VA is realist in its world view. That is

(1) objects exist independent of subjective cognition of them,
(2) we only perceive what exists and is real.

So, all that we perceive are real. Thus, the self (whose existence was not questioned) and insentient matter are all as real as God. They are also absolutely dependent on God for their very being. The relationship between God and selves/matter is analogous to the relationship between our self and our body. So, God, is the supersoul (antaryamin) or the inner controller of selves and matter alike. We constitute God's body.

In terms of epistemology, VA believes that there is no such thing as simple/atomic [technically, nirvikalpa] perception. All and every perception are and only can be of existing/real objects that are qualified by something else. The first time that a child sees a cow, it is a nirvikalpa perception of the form, "This is a complex [composed of subparts/attributes/qualities] entity called 'cow'". The next time another cow is seen, the recognition is of the form "This is also a cow." This is savikalpa perception.

The concept of an all-pervading unity/reality which is ultimately held aloft by God has interesting corrolaries within the VA system.

For one, VA has an interesting way in which it explains misperceptions.

When a shell is perceived as silver, because the system only accepts perception of real/existents, VA believes that some traces of silver actually reside in the shell. That is, both the shell and the silver share common properties. The error in perception is really not an error in the absolute sense because what is presented is actually 80% shell and maybe 20% silver.

What about dreams? VA believes that even dream objects are real. God creates these based on our past Karma so that we can experience the Karmic consequences of our thoughts/actions.

More when I get time! Ramakrishna Mission has published Ramanuja's translation of the BG which is useful. Also of use are books by S.M. Srinivasa Chari published by Motilal Banarasidass Publishers.

[jignyAsu]

What about dreams? VA believes that even dream objects are real. God creates these based on our past Karma so that we can experience the Karmic consequences of our thoughts/actions.

Good intro!

One thing about dreams though. I thought that VA holds that the dreamed objects are unreal but the cognisions or the conscious states experienced are real. But these are all, ofcourse, ordained by God a/c to our karma, as you say.

[philosoraptor]

Good intro!

One thing about dreams though. I thought that VA holds that the dreamed objects are unreal but the cognisions or the conscious states experienced are real. But these are all, ofcourse, ordained by God a/c to our karma, as you say.

The cognition is real. I'm not sure about the dream objects exactly, but I got the sense from what I read that they are "real" in the sense that a movie is real, i.e. it is played for the very specific purpose of entertainment. Similarly, the dream is played for the purpose of letting the living entity enjoy or suffer some of its karma while it is asleep.