Monday, January 16, 2023

Achintya Bheda Abheda tattva (simultaneously one but different)

The "Acintya Bheda Abheda" philosophy is similar to Dvaitadvaita (differential monism). 

All Vaisnava schools are panentheistic and perceive the Advaita concept of identification of Atman with the impersonal Brahman as an intermediate step of self-realization, but not Mukti, or final liberation of complete God-realization through Bhakti Yoga. 

Gaudiya Vaisnavism, a form of Achintya Bheda Abheda philosophy, also concludes that Brahman is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. 

According to them, Brahman is Lord Visnu/Krsna; the universe and all other manifestations of the Supreme are extensions of Him.

In this philosophy, Brahman is not just impersonal, but also personal. 

That Brahman is Supreme Personality of Godhead, though on first stage of realization (by process called jnana) of Absolute Truth, He is realized (usually by advaita-vedantists, followers of Shankaracarya) as impersonal Brahman.

Then by Vaisnavas as personal Brahman having eternal Vaikuntha abode (also known as Brahmalokah sanatana), then as Paramatma (by process of yoga-meditation on Supersoul, Visnu-God in heart)

Visnu (Narayana, also in everyone's heart) who has many abodes known as Visnulokas (Vaikunthalokas), and finally (Absolute Truth is realized by bhakti) as Bhagavan, Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is source of both Paramatma and Brahman (personal, impersonal, or both).

In Gaudiya-vaisnavism, philosophers who try to establish that everything is Brahman or Maya are called Brahmavadis (impersonalists) or Mayavadis. 

Thought they are still considered to be transcendentalists, but of other group (so-called followers of Shankaracarya, because he himself, as avatara of Siva accepted Brahman to be Visnu, not impersonal brahmajyoti as God).

The Advaita concept of a Jivanmukta is mocked as an absurd oxymoron because a person who has surmounted the realm of perception and realized the Absolute (as Advaita holds) should not continue to exist within and interact with the realm of perception that one has realized as being not real. 

The suggestion that such bondage to the world of perception continues for a while after the occurrence of God-realization, because of past attachments, is not tenable. 

Such attachments themselves are artifacts of the perceived world that has supposedly been sublated, and should not continue to besiege the consciousness of the self-realized. 

A Jivanmukta, or liberated person, should not even be physically present in the material universe. 

A person who is living in the world cannot be said to be free of sorrow born of material contact, and also cannot be said to experience the joy of liberation. 

The very act of being in a gross material body is not accepted in as a Jivanmukta i.e. a person liberated from the cycle of birth and death. 

The soul upon liberation does not lose its identity, which remains different from God, nor does one become equal to God in any respect. 

A mukta indeed becomes free from all suffering, but one's enjoyment is not of the same caliber as His, nor does a mukta become independent of Him. 

The permanent differential aspect of Atman (soul) from the Lord is established from:

"Never was there a time when I (Ishvara) did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be." (Bhagavad Gita 2.12)

In Dvaita, liberation (Moksha) is achieved by flawless devotion and correct understanding. Devotion to a personal form of God, Saguna Brahman, indicated here is the transcendental form of Krsna or Visnu (see Vaisnavism). 

This conclusion is corroborated by the Bhagavata Purana, written by Vyasa as his commentary on Vedanta Sutra.

O my Lord, Krsna, son of Vasudeva, O all-pervading Lord, I offer my respectful obeisances unto You, the Absolute Truth and the primeval cause of all causes of the creation, sustenance and destruction of the manifested universes 

om namo bhagavate vasudevaya janmady asya yatah 'nvayad itaratas cartheshv abhijnah svarat). (Bhagavata Purana 1.1.1)

Vyasa employs the words "janma-adi – creation, sustenance and destruction; asya – of the manifested universes; yatah – from whom;", in the first verse of the Bhagavata Purana to establish that Krsna is the Absolute Truth. 

This is clear testimony of the author's own conclusion that the ultimate goal of all Vedic knowledge is Krsna.



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