hinduhome Non commercial website, for knowledge sharing. Free to copy and use, if you find it useful.

Metaphysics

அகர முதல எழுத்தெல்லாம் ஆதி பகவன் முதற்றே உலகு.
Like letter a, starting point of alphapet, God is starting point and also basis or ultimate of everything
Metaphysics is about the first principles of nature and thought. It is concerned with the study of things and their ultimate causes and their underlying but unseen nature. We all live in the world of Unknown. {I do not know! You do not know! No one Knows! But this do not prevent us from guessing, speculating, formualting models and so on}

(1) Click to view for more Metaphors/examples... (2) Click to view for more Advaitha to Dvaitha

Pluralism

Many-sidedness (अनेकान्तवाद ) refers to the principles of pluralism and multiplicity of viewpoints. No single point of view is the complete truth, so no one can arrogantly proclaim the sole monopoly on truth. We are all blind men like "blind men and an elephant" story, where every one describes an elephant based on one organ.

Metaphysics - Vedanta

Metaphysics is the science of ultimate reality, that investigates into the first principles of nature and thought. It is concerned with the study of things and their ultimate causes and their underlying but unseen nature. Ancient cultures like Sumeria, Greece and India had the human intellect tried to probe and understand nature. So philosophy in India started as Swabhava vada (naturalism).

Vedanta is the philosophical foundation of Hinduism and is universal to all countries, all cultures, and even other religious backgrounds. Vedanta affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of religions.

Hindus multiplicity of gods and a plethora of ways to worship, offers infinite interpretations to understand the absolute truth.

There were many models such as, Shunyata or nothing is certain as everything is changing. Some like Buddha prefers to avoid discussions on GOD, as much is unknown and discussion leads to nothing useful. It might be preferable to live in present.

GOD has also been described using abstract terms like Dharma (Order), Truth and Knowledge.

Shankara popularized the theory of Advaita, the theory of non-dualism, and Ramanuja talked about qualified monism. Others like Nimbarkacharya, Vallabhacharya and Madhvacharya have presented their own understanding of the absolute truth.

Some like Jains/ajvikas explained reality with concepts like eternal and endless infinite cycles. There was no need for defining GOD.

And all interpretations are part of the great Hindu tradition. There is nothing like correct or wrong one, but just different models to explain.

Evolution of different schools of thought

  1. Lokayata or Charvaka Darshana by sage Brihaspati is: Only perceptual evidence is authority. The elements are earth, water, fire and air. Matter can think. There is no other world. Death is the end of all.
  2. Sage Kanaada's Vaisheshika Darshana and Kapila's Saankhya is materialistic in its exposition. It relies on the material world to establish the reality of existence.
  3. The existence of an abstract principle cannot be proved. The "Sunya Vada" or the Nihilist school of Buddhism is deduced from realism. Sunyavada and Vijnanavada, the theory of the voidness, and changing nature of the world is presented by many Buddhist scholars. Vacaspati Misra in his Bhamati commentary appreciates the advances in thought by Sunyavada schools.
  4. Universe is unreal (asat). Since its origin is sunya and it ends in sunya, logically, its interim must also be sunya. Thus they conclude that ultimately the element of time also does not exist. This means that the sum-total of everything in the universe is sunya.
  5. Jainism believed in soul, and perceived it as a constantly Changing entity. The phenomenal world, is permanent and real with a continuous change.
  6. Sankarachaya describes with Mayavada (illusion or seems to appear)), that world is unreal and Brahman is the only reality. Ajativada refers to the theory of non-creation. Gaudapada claims that the world of appearances is actually maya and does not factually exist.
  7. Yamunacharya or alavandhar stated that Buddhist concepts and Mayavada was essentially the same thing. Sri Ramanuja also concurred that Mayavada was another form of Sunya Vada. Revived VishishtAdvaita (qualified Monism)
  8. Dualism or Dvaita scholars explain reality with distinct creator and creations (both living and non living).

Basics

  1. Universe: includes all living and Non living objects
  2. Atman: life, the ultimate reality within the human self
  3. Brahmam: impersonal, infinite, eternal source of the universe; pure spirit
  4. Living beings have a body, mind and soul ...
  5. The matter universe is achit.
Most of the models on explaining reality uses concepts such as:
  1. What appears is not What it is. (illusion or your senses or understanding is biased). So, reality could not be understood. This might lead to conclusion, nothing exists and everything is in ones's mind or illusory.
  2. Everything is dynamic, being in a continuous movement of oscillation. Continuously changing, there is no way to know the true nature. Sort of illusory.
  3. Everything is dynamic balance of two opposites, Positive and Negative. Examples Yin-Yang; Purusha-Prakriti; Static state may be voidness or zero sum, both annihilating each other.
  4. Three gunas: sattva (goodness, constructive, harmonious), rajas (passion, active, confused), and tamas (darkness, destructive, chaotic). All of these three gunas are present in everyone and everything, but in different proportions. Overall, there is some dynamic balance. This is extension of dynamic balance of two opposites.
  5. Three states: Awake - Dream - Sleep (Death is permanent sleep or point of no return)
  6. Body - Mind - Unknown or speculative Spirit/soul/life force
  7. Cyclic rhythms of the universe or the cyclic nature of life. One is born, lives, dies and is then reincarnated to begin a new life. There is possibility of eternal cycles with out beginning or end.
  8. Time is accountable for old age, death, and dying of his creations. Some thing can be eternal, always there unaffected by time. Time is a manifestation of God. God is timeless, for time is relative and ceases to exist in the Absolute. The past, the present and the future coexist in GOD simultaneously.
  9. Dharma or cosmic law and order, is the moral force that maintains order in the universe. Dharma is also used to represent moral law governing individual conduct. There is no way to prove or reject, that there is God or any person created the universe and directing the universe. Much has been explained in someway or other by the laws of nature (or Dharma).
  10. Everything is fuzzy and different shades of gray. (there is no yes or no answer).

Using above concepts, philosophers develop various models. No one had answers for everything and there is no perfect or complete model.
Look and enjoy at vastness of Cosmos (or infinite unbounded place we live in).
Do your duty or your part to keep things going! Do good, OR at least do not harm or damage the environment around you!

The one manifests as two leading to many

The one manifested as two (or became two):
(1) Purusha, the male, Shiva, consciousness, and the source of creation.
(2) Prakriti, the female, Nature, Shakti or energy, womb, Mother.

Together they represent the totality of the whole creation, and the union of the opposities and dualities. This led to many are infinite beings. Ardhanariswara (Shiva Shakti) represents the coming together of the fundamental polarities that are present in existence, as the soul and the body, consciousness and matter, male and female, postive and negative, and light and darkness.

This is similar to Yin/Yang, and teaches us the dance of two being one. The principle of Maya (illusion) has been conceived as the Shakti of Brahman or ShivaShakti. The absolute reality is a state of perfect union of Shiva and Shakti. Shiva and Shakti ate two aspects of the one truth - the static and dynamic, the negative and the positive, the abstract and the concrete, the male and the female. Nevertheless, neither Shiva nor Shakti is 'real' without the other. As Shakti cannot be conceived of without Shiva, so also Shiva becomes 'shava' (dead) without Shakti. The two are therefore eternally and inseparably connected.

Karma and Rebirth

The concepts of Karma and rebirth are two major concepts. All sects including buddhists and Jains accept the doctrine "our past actions are only one of the factors involved in determining the outcomes in the present."
Karma means work or action. When you perform a work or action, it is bound to produce an effect, a reaction or a result. Good karma will get you good effects and bad karma will get you bad consequences.
Karma and fruits of Karma are interwoven with time and divine will. This is supposed to answer many observations in life.
Our real identity is the soul and life doesn't end with the death of the biological body. After death, soul is reborn based on karma accumulated in past life.
Moksha is freedom from Rebirth. There is no longer a need for physical birth, for all lessons have been learned, and all karmas have been fulfilled. That individual soul is then naturally liberated, and merges back into its origin or the Primal Soul.

Shunyata

  1. Shunyata (Sanskrit), Stong-pa-nyid (Tibetan), Kung (Chinese) – are translated as “void” or “openness.” Emptiness is seen as the opposite of “fullness".
  2. Emptiness (Wu) points to an inner realization or state of mind characterized by simplicity, quietude, patience, frugality and restraint.
  3. Emptiness imply an infinitely open space that allows for anything to appear, change, disappear, and reappear. The basic meaning of emptiness, in other words, is openness, or potential.
  4. Vacancy, stillness, placidity, tastelessness, silence, and non-action - are the perfection of the Tao and its characteristics.
  5. Buddha, who have transcended, or “gone beyond,” conflict, delusion, or suffering of any kind—a condition one might reasonably understand as “blissful.”

Open mind and Silence

மந்திரம் லௌகிகம் | தந்திரம் விஜ்ஞானம் ||
தர்மம் ப்ரஹ்மஸ்வருபம் | ஸுன்யப் பிரச்னம் போதிஸத்த்வம்
vedic hymn/rituals (மந்திரம்) are for worldly things; scientific material or techniques (தந்திரம்) in vedas are for understanding universe. Truth/laws (தர்மம்) are the forms or views of ultimate reality.
Only by questioning with open or empty mind, one can attain enlightenment. Openness or egoless state is the way to the attainment of perfect knowledge or enlightenment - by salivahana

யாவும் கொடுத்து மௌனமாய் சிவனென்று இருப்பான்
God gave everything (good and bad) and silently watching (known as சிவனென்று in tamil). This is called free will.

மௌன உலகம் சால வழி
World will show the path and guide us. Silence is the best teacher. (Buddha and Dakshina murthy principle)

Monism - Advaita

It is non-dualism of the qualified whole, in which Brahman alone exists, but is characterized by multiplicity. Jeevathma is same as Paramathma but appears as different because of maya or cosmic illusion of separateness.

The swan (motif in Advaita) or hamso, becomes so-aham, meaning, "I am That". Just as a swan lives in a lake but its feathers are not soiled by water, similarly a liberated Advaitin lives in this world but is not soiled by its maya. The liberation from the world is blissful realization of identity with brahman.

Qualified Monism - VishishtAdvaita

VishishtAdvaita (literally "Advaita with uniqueness; qualifications") is non-dualism of the qualified whole.
It can be described as qualified monism or qualified non-dualism or attributive monism.
Jeevathma is part of Paramathma but not same as Paramathma. Paramathma is the in dweller of all beings and all beings dwell in Paramathma.
Soul is integral part of bramham, which has independent existence (like waves in the ocean). Eventually waves will merge in to ocean!

Dualism - Dvaita

Jeevathma and Paramathma are entirely different. Can be like creator-created, ruler-rules, subject-object...
God is the supreme soul like a flame. Individual souls are like sparks from a flame.

Monism - Sikh flavor

Sikh philosophy advocates what our senses comprehend is an illusion; Eternal God is the sole reality. Except God, all are subject to change/time and shall pass away.
Jio Jal Mehi Jal Aae Khattaanaa ||
As water comes to blend with water,
Thio Jothee Sang Joth Samaanaa ||
His light blends into the Light.
[Tenth guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh]

God and Soul are fundamentally the same; identical in the same way as Fire and its sparks. "Atam meh Ram, Ram meh Atam" which means "The Ultimate Eternal reality resides in the Soul and the Soul is contained in Him". As from one stream, millions of waves arise and yet the waves, made of water, again become water; in the same way all souls have sprung from the Universal Being and would blend again into it.

Life is just the way by which people travel

For Taoists, the true reality is known as Tao, which roughly translates as “way” or “path.” Tao is “a road, a path, the way by which people travel, the way of nature and finally the Way of ultimate Reality” (In Lao Tzu). Tao is “from which all things come” (Lao Tzu).Tao cannot be explained in words, “nameless indeed is the source of creation”

Who are we?

சித்தம் சிவலிங்கம் ஹ்ருதயம் ஹ்ருஷிகேசம் (இதயம் பத்மநாபம் )
சரிரம் பஞ்சபூதம் த்வம் பரப்ரஹ்மம்
Mind/Intelligence is Sivalinga. Heart/emotions/life force is Hrishikesa (God of senses, love, feelings). Body is five natural elements. True self (or essence) is Ultimate reality or Infinite power/energy.
Brain represents masculine: mind, logic, thought process. Heart represents feminine characteristics like softness, care, love, affection, motherly feelings. Heart is soft like lotus. Also intuition, and beliefs. All have both masculine and feminine qualities.

Concluding Summary

After spending time/effort on these scriptures, still bulk is unknown. Learned advises one to surrender to infinite power/force, which will take care of every thing. Nothing is in our hands!

Some realted terms

Email Contact... Website maintained by: NARA