Preceptors of Advaita  4 VEDAVYASA Vyasam vasishthanaptaram
Sakteh pautramakalmasham Parasaratmajam vande Sukatatam taponidhim. Srimad Bhagavad-gita emphasizes that the Lord Almighty incarnates in this world for the establishment of Dharma as and when necessary. Dharma can be established in many ways, namely, protecting the pious, destroying the wicked, removing ignorance, and establishing knowledge. Among such incarnations, in the dvaparayuga, Lord Vishnu was born as Vedavyasa in order to remove ignorance and establish knowledge on a firm basis. Out of the three basic energies (desire, action and knowledge) this avatara of Vishnu represents jnanasakti. Jnanasaktyavataraya Born of Maharshi Parasara and Satyavatidevi, Vyasa is known by several names. We may refer to him as Vedavyasa, or merely Vyasa because he codified the Vedas into four sections, viz. Rig, Yajus, Sama and Atharva, and taught them to his four disciples, Pila, Vaisampayana, Jaimini and Sumantu respectively for the benefit of posterity. He is also known as Dvaipayana, because he was born in an island; Krishna as he was dark in colour, and more familiarly as Krishna-dvaipayana, combining both the names. As he performed tapas under a badara tree, he is referred to as Badarayana. “Cogent presentation of truths spread out in different Sastras, directing the disciple to follow the tenets of our Dharma, and practising them himself rigidly, are said to be the chief characteristic of an ideal guru.”
Achinoti ca sastrartham achare sthapayatyapi Sri Vyasa was a shining example of these qualities. Books written by him are so many and voluminous, and unsurpassed in depth of thought and elegance of expression, so much so that we are sometimes led to wonder whether one person could have found the time to write such a large variety of literature, and that perhaps several persons wrote these Volumes and passed them under the name of Vyasa. But there is no reason to doubt their authenticity, as both internal and external evidences go to prove that they were all the products of one mighty intellect. Brahma-Sutra There are six systems of Astika philosophy, namely, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Purvamimamsa, and Uttaramimamsa or Vedanta. Out of these, Vyasa is the author of Brahma-sutra in respect the Vedanta philosophy of the Upanishads. This sutra is known by several names, such as vyasa-sutra, Brahma-sutra, Bhikshu-sutra and Vedanta-sutra. This consists of four adhyayas or sections and there are 555 sutras. Vedantavakyakusumagrathanarthatvat sutranam The Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Yoga and Sankhya systems of philosophy try to arrive at the ultimate truth by means of reasoning only. Purvamimamsa, although based on the authority of the Vedas, is unable to express the true import of the Upanishads, which form the final expression of the Vedas. To this extent, all these systems of philosophy are defective in arriving at the Atmatattva, the truth that is the Atman. To a careful student, it will be apparent that it is not possible to understand the ultimate truth that is Atman purely by intellectual arguments. At the same time, it has to be stated that the Upanishads are not in any way contrary to reasoning. To understand the Upanishadic thought, although human intelligence can be useful to a certain extent, we can never arrive at the ultimate truth through reasoning alone. Tarkapratishthanadanyathanumeyamiti cet The following passage from the Mahabharata, namely, tarko’pratishthah srutayah vibhinnah, (Vana parva, 314-119) also confirms this view of the Brahma-sutra. If we examine the Vyasa-sutra we shall come to the conclusion that Advaita alone is their true import. We shall now explain a few sutras here: "brahmena jaiminirupanyasadibhyah” (4-4-5)
“cititanmatrena tadatmakatvadityaudulomih” (4-4-6) “evamapyupanyasad purvabhavadavi - rodham badarayanah” (4-4-7) The first sutra is an exposition of the view of Jaimini that the released soul gains all the highest qualities of the Saguna or qualified Brahman. The second is of Audulomin. According to him, the released soul is manifest as pure knowledge alone. The third is the view of Badarayana, according to which, there is no contradiction between the two above-mentioned views. Now, this reconciliation of Saguna and Nirguna states is exactly what the Advaitins maintain and others reject. There is another sutra in the first-adhyaya,“sastradrstyatupadeso vamadevavat". In this sutra, the sage vamadeva, on his realization of Brahman, declares that he is “Manu” and he is “Surya”. “I am all” is the Sastraic realization. “I am different from my fellow being” is the typically wordly knowledge. This distinction between wordly knowledge and Sastraic realization – the prominent feature of Advaita philosophy – is brought out in this sutra. (See Advaitaksharamalika, page 276). Sri Sankara, in his Sutrabhashya, has explained in unambiguous terms that these sutras are definitely advaitic in their meaning. According to is bhashya, the theme of the first chapter is Samanvaya, that is, the true import of all the Upanishadic passages is the non-dual Atman. The second chapter is called Avirodha, that is there is no conflict between the import of the first chapter and other pramanas. The third chapter expounds the sadhana necessary to attain the knowledge of Atman or Brahman. The fourth chapter explains the nature of the result i.e. Phala, of the knowledge of Brahman. This, in brief, is the substance of the Brahma-sutra. Similarly, Sri Ramanuja, Sri Madhva and other acharyas also have written Bhashyas on the Brahma-sutra. It is an accepted tradition that no exposition can be treated as authoritative unless quotations from the Brahma-sutra can be given to support those views. Therefore, it is no wonder that the Brahma-sutra has given rise to a large volume of literature, consisting of Bhashyas, Tika, Vartika, Vivarana, etc. There are many books expounding Advaita philosophy based on the Brahma-sutra. Similarly, many books have been written on the Visishtadvaita and Dvaita aspects based on these the Sutra. Nothing more need to be said to show the importance of the Brahma-sutra for real understanding of the tattvas. Itihasa and Puranas As the Brahma-sutra was necessarily terse and brief and could not easily be understood by men of average intellect, Sri Vyasa wrote the Mahabharata and the eighteen Mahapuranas. These Itihasa-puranas enable one to understand better and appreciate the truths adumbrated in the Vedas and the Upanishads. It is said that the Vedas are really afraid of one who has not properly studied the itihasa-puranas, because such a one will misunderstand the truths. Yascaturvedavidviprah puranam vetti Therefore, it follows that to expound the Vedas, a study of the Itihasa and Puranas is necessary. It is thus to the credit of Sri Vyasa that he wrote these puranas and the magnum opus, the Mahabharatha. The eighteen Mahapuranas (1) Brahman, (2) Padmam, (3) Vaishnavam, (4) Saivam,(5) Bhagavatam, (6) Bhavishyam, (7) Naradiyam, (8) Markandeyam, (9) Agneyam, (10) Brahmavaivartam, (11) Lingam, (12) Varaham, (13) Skandam, (14) Vamanam (15) Kaurmam, (16) Matsyam, (17) Garudam, (18) Vayaviyam. It is doubtful whether anyone in his life time would be able to study all these eighteen puranas containing 4,00,000 granthas. Of these eighteen Puranas, ten speak the glories of Siva, four of Mahavishnu, two of Brahman, one of Agni, and one of Surya.
namostu te vyasavisala buddhe It is thus obvious that without the oil of Mahabharata the lamp of our knowledge will cease to burn. Preceptors of Advaita - Other Parts:
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