6 schools of philosophy, Bhagvad Gita, Bhagvatam, 4 Purusharthas and Bhaktiyoga
- Veerendra Ekbote
The 6 schools of philosophy and the founder philosophers of these philosophies were Sage Gautam who propounded the Nyaya philosophy in which the cause of cosmic manifestation were from atomic particles.
Maharshi Kanad in his Vaisheshika philosophy was more Vishesh or elaborate than Sage Gautam and propounded that the cause of cosmic manifestation was because of the combination of atoms and molecules.
Kapila Muni in his Sankhya philosophy analytically studied the various elements to be the cause of cosmic manifestation
Patanjali in his Yoga sutras propounded Yoga philosophy of mystic perfections based on Astanga Yoga to realize universal consciousness.
Jaimini propounded Purva Mimansa philosophy of actions and reactions which maintains that Karmic activities are the cause of the cosmic manifestation and
Vedanta sutra or Uttar Mimansa by Vyasdeva mentions that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Absolute truth and the cause of all causes of the cosmic manifestation and that living entities can have relationship with the Supreme God by the process of Self-realization.
Bhagvad Gita written by VedVyas in the epic Mahabharat can be compared to a precious jewel which is emitting transcendental and spiritual light that is destroying nescience and darkness of ignorance and teaching mankind the path of Self-realization and devotion towards the Supreme Lord by which a living entity escapes the repeated cycle of birth and death which makes him eligible to enter the Spiritual world. Bhagvad Gita contains the summary of all the 108 Upanishads which increases our spiritual awareness towards the existence of Supreme God. The 108 Upanishads, Vedanta sutra, Bhagvad Gita and SrimadBhagvat Purana are all inter related scriptures because the 108 Upanishads and Vedanta speaks more about the localized Bramhan or Atma and its relationship with Parmatma or the Supersoul and gives us in-depth knowledge regarding the form, attributes of our own consciousness to that of the Super-consciousness who is governing all our activities and the cosmic manifestation and ways of attaining the Supreme God.
VedaVyasa recognized that the vast pool of spiritual knowledge regarding the Supreme contained in the 108 Upanishads will be lost to the future generations of Kaliyuga as we see at present we have the knowledge of only 11 principal Upanishads available to mankind. Similarly VedVyasa also recognized that the Vedanta sutra composed by him will be difficult to comprehend by the general masses and so he composed the longest epic in the history of mankind namely Mahabharat in which Bhagvan Krishna the Supreme God himself instructs the divine knowledge of Bhagvad Gita to Arjun on the battlefield of Kurukshetra which appears in the Bhisma parva of the Mahabharat epic just before the start of Mahabharat war and is considered as the empirical Upanishad. So even if people in general will not be able to understand the knowledge in the 108 Upanishads and Vedanta sutra, just by reading Bhagvad Gita which is chief amongst all the Upanishads they can know the essence of the Upanishads and Vedanta because Bhagvad Gita was spoken by the Supreme Lord Krishna himself for the entire mankind and by knowing and following which one can free himself from the repeated cycle of birth and death and go back to the spiritual world.
After the disappearance of Bhagvan Krishna to his spiritual abode Srila Vyasdeva composed SrimadBhagvat Puran which is considered to be the golden ripen fruit of all Vedic literatures and chief amongst all the 18 Puranas and is considered to be the running commentary on his own Vedanta sutra which means Vyasdeva composed SrimadBhagvatam for the benefit and spiritual elevation of the general masses who could not understand the high philosophy of Vedanta and 108 Upanishads for by hearing and reading this spiritual literature everyday one could easily transcend the modes of material nature by the mercy of the Supreme Lord Krishna since it contains the glories of the name, fame, activities, pastimes of the Supreme Lord.
Vyasdeva after the composition of the epic Mahabharat felt despondent and dissatisfied with the vast literature he had composed for the betterment of mankind and wanted to compose a spiritual and transcendental literature which only glorifies the name, fame, pastimes and of Supreme Lord Krishna or Hari and his incarnations and devotees. So as per the instruction of his spiritual master Narada Muni, Srila Vyasdeva composed the spotless SrimadBhagvat Purana for the fallen conditioned Souls of Kaliyuga which contains 18000 verses or shlokas and those people who will get an opportunity to hear SrimadBhagvat Purana will purify their senses by hearing Krishna katha as SrimadBhagvatam is Lord Krishna personified and would elevate themselves spiritually on the platform of Krishna consciousness. By performing the 9 types of devotional service a person can transform his daily activities into Krishna conscious activities by daily reading and hearing Bhagvat Purana. This process of hearing and reading Bhagvat katha instills and inculcates faith in the devotee towards the Supreme Lord because the activities and pastimes of the Supreme Lord are all transcendental and liberating to hear for the conditioned Souls.
Thus Vedanta sutra establishes the awareness to have relationship with the Supreme Lord whether it is personal or impersonal which depends upon the realization and devotion of the Sadhak or Bhakta towards the Supreme Lord. The Supreme Lord in the 12th chapter of Bhagvad Gita clearly differentiates between Personal worship of God and Impersonal worship of God and mentions that those who worship him directly in his Person form that has attributes and qualities with faith and devotion associates with him directly in the Spiritual world but for those whose consciousness is on his Impersonal feature the Supreme Lord says liberation is very troublesome and even though they achieve liberation the impersonalists merge into my impersonal feature and have to once again take birth in this material world because of their impersonal consciousness towards him. Though Vedanta and some of the 108 Upanishads describe Supreme God to be impersonal i.e. Nirakar and Nirguna, the same Sage VedVyasa in his authorative scriptures written by him such as Bhagvad Gita and SrimadBhagvatam Purana describes that although the Supreme God is the source of his own impersonal feature which pervades the Spiritual sky in the form of Bramhajyoti, the source of that Bramhajyoti impersonal feature is the Supreme Personality of God himself who possess divine attributes, name, fame, pastimes and paraphernalia and is controlling the entire cosmic manifestation with its innumerable material and spiritual planets from his topmost realm of Goloka Vrindavan that is situated in Vaikuntha (spiritual world) and enjoying different types of Rasas with his devotees who are all perfect self-realized ever liberated Souls. So realizing their fallen conditioned state the devotees of the Supreme Lord through the process of Self-realization constantly strive for the mercy of the Supreme Lord through the process of devotional service or Bhaktiyoga in the material world by chanting of holy names, hearing the glories and worshipping the Supreme Lord in deity form and by the mercy of the Supreme Lord revive their eternal loving relationship with the Supreme Lord in the spiritual world thus escaping the repeated cycle of birth and death to lead an eternal life in the Spiritual world.
Srila Vyasdeva was present at the time when Supreme Lord Krishna was also present on the earthly planet and Srila Vyasdeva is considered as the literary incarnation of the Supreme Lord. Vyasdeva observed the activities of the Supreme Lord while on the earthly planet and it was during his time that the message of Bhagvad Gita was instructed by Bhagvan Krishna to Arjun just before the battle of Kurukshetra. The essence of Bhagvad Gita is to surrender to the will of the Supreme Lord and it can be easily achieved by practicing Bhaktiyoga wherein a devotee surrenders his false ego to the will of the Supreme Lord and performs duties as is desired by the Supreme Lord which frees him from the reactions of the actions performed. Arjun felt dejected to fight with his own relatives and was about to abandon the battlefield. Lord Krishna then instructed him the divine message of Bhagvad Gita and made him realize his real Self and his duty to fight as a Kshatriya rather then to run from the battlefield and told him to surrender at his lotus feet by which he will be freed from all sinful reactions. After hearing the transcendental message of the Supreme Lord Arjun surrendered to the will of Bhagvan Krishna by realizing the true nature of his self and of his duty as a Kshatriya and won the Mahabharat war as he was guided by Lord Krishna who is the cause of all causes. Similarly a Bhaktiyogi or a devotee is always surrendered to Bhagvan Krishna and performs his specific duties in the material world in a detached manner without thinking about its fruits. A Bhaktiyogi is always in a Self-realized state while remaining detached and surrendered to the Supreme Lord and is performing his duties by surrendering its fruits to the Supreme Lord. Lord Krishna explained Arjuna all types of Yogic processes to attain him in his divine message of Bhagvad Gita such as Karmayoga, Gyanyoga, Sankhyayoga, Astangayoga, Dhyanyoga, Rajyoga, Buddhiyoga, Purushottamyoga and Sharanagatiyoga. However while explaining all these Yogic processes Bhagvan Krishna gave more importance to Bhaktiyoga as all these Yogic processes of surrendering him ultimately converge in Bhaktiyoga which is the topmost and easiest form of Yoga to attain pure love of God and is easy and sublime to perform. Bhagvan Krishna himself describes 36 qualities of an ideal devotee in the 12th chapter of Bhagvad Gita which are he should be equipoised in happiness and distress, compassionate, tolerant towards all living beings, peaceful, non-violent, friend to all, non-envious, steadfast, resolute, self-satisfied, self-realized, determined, equal to both friend and foe, calm.
So Lord Krishna himself defines all the good qualities he is looking for persons born in the age of Kali which is full of quarrel and vices and assures that a devotee having these qualities is very dear to him.
As per Dharmashastras in this material world a person performs 4 Purusarthas of Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha wherein his life progresses by performing the 4 activities of Religiosity, making Economic development, fulfilling his desires and striving for liberation. Here Moksha means liberation or merging oneself in Bramhan which is not equivalent to Mukti which the devotees of the Supreme Lord desire by performing Bhakti since they want to associate eternally with the Supreme God in the Spiritual world and don’t aspire for Sayujya mukti or Moksha which is the 4th Purushartha. Moksha is generally desired by impersonalists, Gyanyogis or other type of Yogis other than Bhaktiyogi are totally unaware about the existence of the Supreme Lord as a Person and could only be achieved through devotion for having eternal association in loving relationship with the Supreme Lord in the Spiritual world. The devotees of the Supreme Lord who do not aspire for Sayujya Mukti (Moksha) and want to associate with the Supreme Lord eternally in the spiritual world aspire for Mukti by performing Bhakti in the material world. The Supreme Lord by his causeless mercy bestows upon his fortunate devotee the desire of liberation (Mukti) as per the devotee’s aspiration which is usually of 4 types i.e. Salokya Mukti in which a devotee lives on the same planet as like the Supreme Lord or Samipya Mukti – in which a devotee gets direct association with the Supreme Lord or Sarishtya Mukti – in which the devotee has opulences as like the Supreme Lord or Sarupya Mukti – in which a devotee has same bodily features as like the Supreme Lord. Hence Bhakti or devotional service though not considered a limb in the 4 Purusharthas is very important in the daily activities of a human being who want to transcend the modes of material nature for eternal life in the spiritual world because the last stage of the 4 Purusarthas of a Karmi, Gyani and Yogi is to have Moksha or merge in the impersonal feature of the Supreme Lord. However a Bhaktiyogi by performing the 4 Purusharthas throughout his life along with Bhakti aspires for Mukti and attains liberation or mukti by the mercy of the Supreme Lord – Bhagvan who is the cause of all causes.
|| Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare |
| Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare ||
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