The Advaita Vedanta philosophical school's latter branch.
The Advaita school believes in monism, or the idea that there is a single Ultimate Reality that lays underlying everything and that everything is only a different manifestation of that reality.
- Despite the appearance of variety, Advaita adherents believe that reality is nondual (advaita), that is, that all things are nothing but the formless, unqualified Brahman.
- This presupposition of variety, according to Advaitins, is a basic misunderstanding of the ultimate essence of things, or avidya.
- Although frequently translated as "ignorance," avidya is more accurately described as a lack of true knowledge, which leads to karmic bonding, rebirth (samsara), and misery.
- Although the school gets its name from a commentary published by Mandana's student Vachaspati Mishra, Bhamati Advaita is founded on Mandana Mishra's teachings.
Mandana was a contemporary of Advaita Vedanta's greatest exponent, philosopher Shankaracharya, and took firm positions on many philosophical issues on which Shankaracharya had kept quiet.
- One of them was the location of avidya, which Mandana argued had to be each individual Self since it was ridiculous to think of Brahman as being subject to ignorance.
- Mandana had many, distinct identities, since one person's freedom did not bring release to others.
- Mandana's remarks implied the presence of a shared, though illusory, reality, which his followers interpreted as the result of a single primordial ignorance; nevertheless, they had to explain how a single basic ignorance could impact many souls at the same time.
- This was accomplished via the use of philosophical frameworks such as limitationism and reflectionism, albeit the latter is more usually connected with the Bhamati school.
- Limitationism argues that certain objects (such as the color red) are not split in our minds, despite the fact that various red hues exist in different locations.
Similarly, according to the Bhamati school, avidya may exist in many souls at the same time but is entire and undivided in each.
- Reflectionism is founded on the concept of a mirror image that differs from the original yet is created from it.
- As a result, every avidya discovered in a soul is a "reflection" of the original avidya.
Karl H. Potter (ed. ), Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, 1972, has further information.
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