Brahman and the World

This book proposes to take up the question of Universal Causation to examine thoroughly as how far it is right to regard Brahman as the Universal Cause and how far sūtrakāra himself lent his support to each of the inter-conflicting schools of Vedānta.

The Vedānta has been rightly called the Finest Fruit of Indian Thought and the Upaniṣads as the Finer Flowers. Vedānta grows out of the teachings of the Upaniṣads and passes into the various systems in the writings of Śaṅkara, Bhāskara, Rāmānuja, Madhva and Vallabha, the great founders of Advaita, Bhedābheda, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaitādvaita and Śuddhādvaita, respectively. However, there is a perception among Orientalists that while the Upaniṣads favour the Monistic doctrine, Bādarāyaṇa’s Brahmasūtra fundamentally opposes it on some of the most crucial points. The book thus delves deep into the philosophies of both Bādarāyaṇa and Śaṅkara in enunciating the essential features of Brahman and Its association with the world. It thus discusses topics such as what sort of cause Brahman is?, and what sort of material causality is to be ascribed to It? It also addresses the conflicting views on the nature of Brahman like that of Vivarttavāda and of Rāmānuja’s Saguṇa-Brahman.