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Author Topic: Shankara Vs Buddha  (Read 2112 times)

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Offline dattaswami

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Shankara Vs Buddha
« on: December 29, 2010, 03:26:25 AM »
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  • Shankara Vs Buddha
    Shankara told that absolute unimaginable God is Para Brahma
    Both Buddha and Shankara kept silent about the absolute unimaginable God


    The word Brahman in the philosophy of Shankara never means the unimaginable God, who cannot be indicated by any word. Shankara clearly told that absolute unimaginable God indicated by the word Para Brahma can be expressed through silence only (Maunavyaakhyaa..). The word Para Brahma means that which is beyond Brahman. Therefore, the word Brahma in the philosophy of Shankara clearly stands for the essence of the creation, which is cosmic energy only. The final use of this meditation is to know that you are this infinite cosmic energy (Brahman) and live without any worldly tension. Shankara was also human incarnation and never opposed Buddha.

     He opposed the Buddhists only, who misunderstood Buddha and became atheists. According to Shankara meditation always means the critical analysis about the self to get salvation from the worldly tensions. Due to the eccentric ego of the then atheists, Shankara did not go beyond this since the atheists will not accept God beyond themselves. This limitation is not due to limited knowledge of Shankara, but is due to the then existing situation of the psychology of the surrounding society. Even Buddha kept silent about God because the society dealt by Him consisted of Purvamimamsakas, who were strong atheists. Buddha told that everything including the self is only relatively real (Shunyam). This is correct because the self is a part of the cosmic energy or creation, which is relatively real with respect to the absolute unimaginable God. Buddha stopped at this point because the atheists cannot realize the existence of unimaginable God indicated through His silence.

    The point of Buddha is that if God is non-existent, the entire creation including yourself is non-existent. Shankara wanted to establish the existence of God. For this purpose, He made the infinite cosmic energy as the God. He brought out the identity of yourself with the continuous cosmic energy and made yourself the God. Since you will not negate the existence of yourself, you will accept the existence of God, who is yourself. Both Buddha and Shankara kept silent about the absolute unimaginable God. The same philosophy was dealt by them in different angles in different situations.
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