How do impersonalists derive impersonal conclusions from the Gita?
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Transcript
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When Krishna says clearly that the personal realization is the highest, how do impersonalists come to impersonal conclusions from the Bhagavad Gita? They basically, there are different strategies. Shankaracharya in his Vedanta Sutra commentary adopted a strategy which is considered standard by most Advaitins. And what was his strategy? He divided Shastra into Mahavakya and Laghuvakya.
Mahavakya is the great words, as Maha means great, and Laghuvakya is the inferior words. And he took five Sutras, five statements from the Upanishads. Say for example, Aham Brahma Asmi, Ayam Atma Brahma, Pragyanam Brahma, Tattvam Asi.
So like this he says, these statements convey the highest truth. And everything else is subordinate. So he says they are all Laghuvakya.
And in this way, actually the Advaitins, they end up, so now how is it selected, what is the Mahavakya and what is the Laghuvakya? The Advaitins begin with the assumption that oneness is the ultimate truth. So those Upanishadic statements which talk about oneness, they are the ultimate truth. And because we are in the conditioned stage, we cannot realize that ultimate truth.
So for us to practice and elevate ourselves slightly in the conditioned stage also, there are Laghuvakya. So the ultimate truth is that we and God are one. But till you come to that level, you can worship God.
So what they do is, by imposing their philosophy on scripture, they rupture scripture into two. And that part of scripture which agrees with their conclusion, they say that is Mahavakya. And everything that disagrees with their conclusion, they say is Laghuvakya.
And now Ramacharya, in his Vedanta Sutra commentary, Sri Bhashyam rips apart the strategy. And he says that what is the basis for this two-level classification? Nowhere does scripture say that only those things which talk about oneness are highest, and those which talk about duality and devotion are lower. So they try to defend that strategy in various ways.
But quite often, they still keep using that strategy. They say that there is a Paramarthik Satya and there is a Vyavaharik Satya. So Vyavaharik is practical reality, I and you are different.
But in ultimate reality, I and you are one. So whenever Krishna talks about such things, where he says about how the personal is the highest, they say Krishna is talking at the practical level. This is a Laghuvakya.
And they say any words, even of Krishna, which are not in harmony with the Mahavakya, they say we should consider them as lower. And there are other impersonals in another strategy. They try to say that the Bhagavad Gita talks about different things for different people.
So when Krishna is glorifying the personal form, he says these verses are for the bhaktas. And those verses which talk about, say, the meditation on Brahman, they say these are for the jnanis. So they try to, in that way, relativize statements of Krishna which are clearly absolute.
When Krishna says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam sarvam vraja, there are two absolute statements, absolute words in this. Sarva and ekam. All dharmas reject and me alone surrender.
So there is really no way to relativize this. But still, they relativize it by saying, okay, this section is for bhaktas. Now Krishna has talked about the impersonal Brahman earlier.
As a famous Gita commentator who taught, not a traditional commentator, an impersonalist commentator, he wanted to teach that yoga is the greatest. So he translated and commented only the first six chapters. Why? Because his idea was that the sixth chapter, yoga.
And that is the highest. And even in his commentary, his commentary stops at 6.46. He doesn't go to 6.47. Why? 6.47 is yoga should lead to bhakti. He says, no, he doesn't emphasize that verse.
It's his previous verse. Therefore, all of you should become yogis. That is the conclusion of the Bhagavad Gita.
Yes, we should become yogis. But what kind of yogis? That is, basically, they use, the essential strategy is cherry-picking verses. And we select verses which suit their philosophy.
That's how they try to arrive at the conclusion. Thank you very much.