|| IV. Philosophy ||

Sankaradeva’s concept of Godhead, which forms the bed-rock of his religious philosophy, is that of One who is ever living and loving and the force with which the world is connected with God is both centripetal and centrifugal.

The term Mahapurusiyā, applied to the religion of Sankaradeva, is at once a challenge to Prakrti-Purusism of the Samkhyā system of Hindu philosophy and immediately stamps the originality of the philosophy of the religion founded by Sankaradeva. It is both the starting point and the point of departure.

• Contents

  • The Religious Philosophy of Sankaradeva
  • Narayana - the Supreme Reality
  • The Relation between jiva and God
  • Maya - its Power and how to how to Overcome it
  • Rejection of Worship of Minor gods : the Philosophical Explanation
    • On The Nature of God
    • Vaikuntha : the Supreme Abode
    • Liberation (mukti) and its Types
    • Sankaradeva : Psychology
    • The Way to jivan-mukti

Who, Sankaradeva asks, can ascribe ‘dvaita’ or duality to God, when, on transcending the māyā or nescience, it becomes clear that the same Niranjana, or the Supreme Divinity, exists in every item of His creation? The apparent difference, he asserts, is only in nām (name) and rupa (form), as between gold and the various ornaments made out of it.