ajAti vAda

Introduction -
The advaita philosophy is not easy to explain briefly, and it is not my intention to repeat
in a www home page what takes whole volumes for accomplished experts. I will content
myself with providing a brief synopsis of the various aspects of advaita vedAnta.
A very important assumption in all vedAnta is that man suffers from bondage in the
course of his life in this world. This is said to be sam.sAra, which involves being caught
in an endless cycle of births and deaths. The quest therefore is to seek a way out of this
bondage, to break the cycle of rebirths and attain moksha or liberation. The most
important issues in vedAnta have to be understood with respect to what constitutes
bondage and what constitutes liberation. The advaita school is of the view that jnAna
(knowledge) of man's true nature is liberation. Bondage arises from ignorance (avidyA)
of man's true nature, and therefore removal of ignorance roots out this bondage.
Liberation is therefore nothing more or nothing less than man knowing his true nature.
This true nature is his innermost essence, the Atman, which is nothing other than
brahman. He who knows this, not merely as bookish knowledge, but through his own
Experience, is liberated even when living. Such a man is a jIvanmukta, and he does not
return to the cycle of rebirths.
brahman -
It may be noticed that at first glance, advaita's solution to the problem of man's liberation
does not seem to involve God as a Creator or a Savior at all. If all that is required is to
know one's own true nature, what role does God have to play in this universe? advaita's
answer to this issue is buried in the advaitic conception of brahman. One is the view of
the brahmasUtra that brahman is at once both the instrumental and the material cause of
the universe. The brahmasUtra holds such a view because there is nothing that can be
said to exist independent of brahman. Is brahman then just a name for a universal set -
the superset of all things in this universe? Not so, because brahman has been described
as beyond all change, whereas the perceived universe is full of change. Still, this
universe is said to have brahman as the only cause. At the same time, to understand
brahman truly is to know It to be devoid of parts and diversity, and beyond all
causality/action. Such a conception of brahman derives from the upanishads, which say
sarvam khalvidam brahma - all this is indeed nothing but brahman - on the one hand,
and neha nAnAsti kincana - there is no diversity here - on the other. Thus, the conception
of brahman as a Creator in advaita is a unique one, and directly relates to the advaita
views on causality.
Causality: pariNAma and vivarta -
There are different theories of causality described by advaita vedAntins, but they are all
agreed that brahman is the sole cause of the universe, i.e both the instrumental and the
material cause of the universe. The axiom that the One brahman is the cause of the
many-fold universe is the foundation on which the entire system of advaita vedAnta is
based, and numerous efforts have been made over the centuries, to address logical
problems arising out of it. This brahman is also held to be eternal and changeless. It is
easy to understand brahman as the instrumental cause of the universe. This view is not