Vageesh Express

Vedic Wisdom

Advaita-II

Vedanta is a principal branch of Hindu philosophy. The word Vedanta is a tatpurusha compound of veda "knowledge" and anta "end, conclusion", translating to "the culmination of the Vedas". In this article we shall continue to look at the Advaita school of vedanta.

Let us look at the nature of worship in Advaita. The orthodox advaita tradition is closely allied to the smarta tradition, which follows the system of pancaayatana puja, where Vishnu, Siva, Sakti, Ganapati and Surya are worshipped as forms of Saguna Brahman. In some sources, the concept of the Pancaayatana is replaced by the notion of shanmata, which adds Skanda to the above set of five deities. The worship is done both on a daily basis and on specific festival occasions.

Vishnu and Siva, the Great Gods of Hinduism, are both very important within the advaita tradition. The sannyasis of the advaita order always sign their correspondence with the words "iti narayanasmaranam ". In worship, advaitins do not insist on exclusive worship of one devata alone. As brahman is essentially attribute-less (nirguna), all attributes (gunas) equally belong to It, within empirical reality. The particular form that the devotee prefers to worship is called the ishta-devata. The ishta-devatas worshipped by advaitins include Vishnu as Krishna, the Jagadguru, and as Rama, Siva as Dakshinamurti, the Guru who teaches in silence, and as Chandramaulisvara. The Mother Goddess as Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati. Especially popular are the representations of Vishnu as a Salagrama, Siva as a Linga, and Sakti as the Sriyantra. Ganapati is always worshipped at the beginning of any human endeavor, including the puja of other Gods. The daily sandhyaavandana ritual is addressed to Surya. The sannyasis of the advaita sampradaya recite both the Vishnu sahasranamam and the Satarudriya portion of the Yajurveda as part of their daily worship. In addition, "hybrid" forms of the Deities, such as hari-hara or Sankara-narayana and ardhanarisvara are also worshipped.

There is another significant distinction between worship in the advaita tradition and other kinds of Hindu worship. Advaita insists that the distinction between the worshipper and God, the object of worship, is ultimately transcended, and that the act of worship itself points to this identity. This should not be confused with the doctrine of dualistic Saiva siddhanta schools, which call for a ritual identification of the worshipper with Siva, for the duration of the worship. The identity of Atman and Brahman is a matter of absolute truth, not just a temporary ritual identification. Most Vaishnava schools of Vedanta hold that the distinction between the worshipper and God, the object of worship, is eternally maintained.

We will continue to look at other aspects of Advaita in the next article.

Reference: Wikipedia.com, www.vedanta.org, www.advaita-vedanta.org

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