According to Ramanujan (11th century AD) Gita is a type of personal mysticism, God dwells in the secret places of the human soul, but He is unrecognised by it so long as the soul does not acquire the redeeming knowledge. Only by serving God with our whole heart and soul we can acquire this knowledge. The wretchedness of sin, the deep longing for the divine, the intense feeling of trust and faith in God’s all conquering love, only all these can take us to the ultimate knowledge.
Madhav (1199 to 1276 AD) advocates’ dualistic (dwaita) philosophy from his interpretation of Gita .According to him, it is self-contradictory to look upon soul as identical with the supreme in one sense and different from him in another. The two must be regarded as eternally different from each other. He holds the opinion that we must give up the distinction between “mine” and “thine” and hold that everything is subject to the control of God.
Nimbaka (AD 1162) adopts the theory of dwaitaadwaita (dual-non-dual doctrine). He holds that the soul, the world and God are different from each other; yet the existence and activity of the soul and the world depend
on the will of God.
Vallabh (AD 1479) develops what is called sudhadwaita or pure non-dualism. The ego when pure and unblinded by illusion and the Supreme Brahman are one. Souls are particles of God like sparks of fire and they cannot acquire the knowledge necessary for obtaining release except by the grace of Supreme. Devotion to God means release. Bhakti is truth associated with love.
There are many schools of thought. The Hindu tradition believes that the different views are complementary not contradictory.
As one very popular verse declares: “from the view-point of body, I am thy servant, from the view-point of ego, I am a portion of theory, from the view-point of the self, I am thyself. This is my conviction.”
God is experienced as Thou or I according to the plane in conscious centres.
June 13, 2006
Gita III...Different Schools of Thought
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6 comments:
Very interesting ideas, Gautami. I think, in many ways, that the fact that different interpretations can be drawn is evidence of the depth of the teaching. I really like the quote, "From the viewpoint of body..." Thanks for posting!
Hinduism has always assimilated the goodness from all other religions too. It accepts, evolves....
Gita has never been understood fully by anyone. I have read it so many times. Each time iI read I get a different insight. I can't say those are contradictory...
Nice blog. I think that I will come time to time to read on Gita. Thanks for sharing. Peace.
the last two paragraphs are intriguing thoughts, i would enjoy a deeper exploration of this.
Thanks Paula! Do come!
Kevin, I will explain the last to paragraphs in my next posts.
That's a great story. Waiting for more. » » »
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