In quest of God
By Murali Murthy
Humanity has always been amazed, amused with the concept of God and we have eternally been running around finding answers.
I guess the best way to get answers, is to ask questions.
Every school of thought, especially those under Hinduism, found solace under Vedas to find answers.
Every school of thought came into being when their founders disagreed, as they were not convinced with the existing understanding, definitions, notions and started asking questions.
If the founders of their future School of Thought had to be accepted, they needed to have the courage, conviction and brave enough to start asking questions. And if their idea had to be even acknowledged, it was obvious that the arguments had to be intellectual.
Unlike the common notion that these great philosophers only propounded their definition of God, ways of Bhakti Rituals, Rules, be it Sri Shankara, Sri Ramanuja or Sri Madhwa, they were infact no less than scientists or researchers. They researched Brahma Sutras, Vedas, Shastras and came up with their interpretations, findings and put forth extremely intelligent explanations, arguments and had to prove (in the context and scope of vedantha) their ideas.
It was all about interpreting Vedas and coming up with justifiable explanations. Different schools of thought came into being because of the difference in interpretations. For Ex: the term Vedantha itself can be interpreted as Veda+Antha = End of Vedas, or The ultimate knowledge of Vedas...same word with contradictory meanings.
And this is exactly what happened between Shankara & Madhwa. While Shankara based on his intelligence, texts, tools available at that point of time, propounded his interpretations of Vedas in the 8th Century, while Madhwa in the 13th Century had more resources including all the works of Shankara, which he believed should be questioned.
Shankara and Madhwa both agreed Bhakti marga, Gnaana marga and Karma marga are the ways to understand God and spirituality.
Each of us take different paths to attain Spirituality...while my Mom is 100% into Bhakti (Devotion) where her way of understanding God is by expressing emotions and her inner bliss, and blindly following her faith and rituals without questioning.
On the other side, my Uncles (Subbanna, Narayana, JK) chose Gnaana marga, where they studied Madhwa Bhashya and understood the true essence of Tatvavada. It was their conviction to follow Madwa sidhantha, as Madhwa had access to all the knowledge, tools, comparative analysis with the other schools of thought, which made his study and explanations comprehensive.
As JK says, it's like a Buffet spread and each of us choose to go to the counter that suits us or that we are comfortable with. My mom will go to a different counter, my uncles might go to a different counter, while my other cousin (who is a true aethist) goes to another line.
And the confused lot like me, who would stand in every single line end up with a plate with Anna Saaru and saaru running and joining Egg Curry and Panneer Butter Masala as well on my plate.
JK also says, even an aethist understands God and the aethist chooses not to believe in God.
Each of us are born in a family and belief system. My mom is a Madhwa by birth, but my Uncles are Madhwa by conviction, because they understand the message of Madhwa and their conviction on his findings and explanations.
I also see another core set who are hyper about rules, regulations, maDi, rituals, with extremely conservative approach.
Madhwa identified inconsistencies in Shankara Bhashya and the interpretations of the position of God and his supremacy.
The compromise established by Shankara that Brahman is the creator of an illusional world and that people should detach from this illusion.
This was unacceptable to Madhwa, who found consistency in all Shastras to say Brahman is supreme and is unquestionable, in which case his creation also cannot be falsified. His creation is also as True, as real as him.
When we humans experience this pain, this joy, this pleasure, this life in Real, our experience itself stands testimony to the reality of life and world. Ofcourse controlled by him!
I can imagine how Madhwa would have felt, when he was told his entire being, his life, are all just a farse, they are illusional and don't exist for real. He would have said "This can't be true...God is much more sensible and serious in his business, he wouldn't have said that...let me find out what Vedas say about this" and Tatvavada came into being!
The Matrix movie is a good illustration of Tatvavada, where we live inside a Matrix controlled by the creator, yet what's inside and outside the Matrix are all real.
With all this analysis of differences, friendly, intellectual fight between different schools of thought, what attracts me are these intellectual thought processes, deep analysis, research and countering the established practices and influential philosophies that Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa countered in their respective timelines.
Even centuries later, one would find answers to individual spiritual quest, in the messages and teachings of the Schools of thought we follow & practice.
