Integral Non-Dualism

by Kanshi Ram

Vijnanabhiksu, the author of Vijnanamrtabhasya, an independent commentary on Badarayana`s Brahmasutras, conceived a system in which both the world and the individual selves also enjoyed the status of reality and which accorded due importance to both knowledge and action as means to liberation.

He believed that it is the philosophy of the unreality of the world which was responsible for man`s alienation from his environment and in order to help him overcome the alienation a more meaningful relationship of man with his surroundings and fellow-beings was needed.

This is precisely the reason why Vijnanabhiksu took up cudgels against the advocated of Maya and expounded a system in which the world has been accepted as a real transformation of Prakrti, the power of the Absolute, and which thus has no place for Maya in the sense in which it has in the philosophy of Advaita.Vijnanabhiksu`s system is a peculiar blend of knowledge, yoga and bhakti.

 Probably it was the need of the times and it is for this reason that he combined both the non-dualistic idealism of Samkara and the realistic idealism of Samkhya with the prevailing cult of devotion. It is his zeal for syncretism that he has welded various philosophical trends of Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, Puranas, etc. into his system of Integral Non-dualism.

About the Author:

Kanshi Ram is Reader, Department of Sanskrit, Hans RAj College, University of Delhi.