Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy Continued

This document is a continuation of a study on contemporary Vedanta philosophy, focusing on several prominent Indian philosophers. The author, George Burch, presents a detailed analysis of their ideas, highlighting their contributions and how they interpret and advance the Advaita Vedanta tradition.

Here's a summary of the key philosophers and their ideas discussed in the text:

G. R. Malkani:

• Champion of Advaita Vedanta: Malkani is presented as a contemporary advocate of Advaita Vedanta, the perennial philosophy of India.
• Westernization of Vedanta: He uniquely restates Vedanta in English, using Western philosophical concepts and methods to make it accessible to a wider audience, while retaining its Indian essence.
• Ruthless Rationality: Malkani is characterized by his rigorous and uncompromising logic, pushing Advaita's implications to their ultimate conclusions, sometimes deviating from what colleagues consider orthodox Vedanta.
• Systematic Presentation: Unlike the traditional commentary style, Malkani presents Advaita systematically, making his works understandable to those unfamiliar with classical Sanskrit literature.
• Institute of Philosophy: He is the permanent director of the Indian Institute of Philosophy in Amalner, an institution founded to develop and propagate Advaita Vedanta.
• Emphasis on Reason and Experience: Malkani's philosophy is rooted in absolute rationalism, aiming to follow reason wherever it leads, without prejudice or mysticism. He believes philosophy should be a rational analysis of experience, with a motive, content, and application.
• Problem-Based Approach: He prefers answering specific questions rather than presenting a systematic theory, believing that answers should be relative to the inquirer and their specific context.
• Three Arguments for Advaita: Malkani employs ontological, epistemological, and cosmological arguments to support his conclusion that Brahman is nondual (Advaita) and the world is illusory, with the self alone being real.
• Ekajivavada (One-Individual-ism): He defends this theory, which posits that there is only one subject (jiva) whose ignorance creates the illusion of many individuals and the world.
• Ignorance and Error: Malkani's theory of ignorance is presented as original. He suggests that error (maya) precedes ignorance (ajnana), and that error, not ignorance, is the inexplicable first cause of illusion.
• Attainment of Freedom (Moksha): Freedom is attained through knowledge of truth, not through action, will, love, or mystical ecstasy. It involves a shift of attention, facilitated by a guru, to what is always known directly.

R. Das:

• Critical Realism and Agnosticism: Das represents an opposing stance to Malkani's speculative rationalism, advocating for critical realism and agnosticism.
• Reason as the Sole Method: He places complete faith in reason for knowledge but is skeptical about its ultimate success in achieving certainty. He views religion as superstition.
• Experience as Data: Das's early work emphasizes that philosophical data should come from experience, including moral experience, and that metaphysics is partly dependent on ethics.
• The Ideal and Duty: He believes in an objectively real ideal that is not yet realized. Our duty is to become ourselves, which is an expression of self-realization through love for fellow beings.
• Mature Critical Stage: In his later work, Das adopts critical realism, acknowledging the existence of metaphysical reality but stressing the obscurity of deeper reality and the need for intellectual humility and skepticism.
• Rejection of "Illusory": Das challenges the Vedantic concept of "illusory," arguing it's meaningless to call the world or anything else illusory. He believes the world is given and our task is to understand it.
• The Self: Das views the self as a changing entity that begins, develops, and ends within this life, finding satisfaction in its growth rather than in immortality.
• Skepticism in Metaphysics, Certainty in Ethics: While skeptical about metaphysical claims, Das finds certainty in ethics, emphasizing spirituality, simple living, inner peace, service, and love.

D. M. Datta:

• Influence of Personality and Scholarship: Datta is noted for his personality, humility, and scholarly acumen, exerting a significant influence through his example and counsel.
• Semantic Analysis: He emphasizes the importance of semantic analysis and the discovery of categories for philosophical agreement, using examples from Vinoba Bhave and Eisenhower.
• Dehatmavada (Body-Soul-ism): Datta's philosophy is a form of panpsychism where body is soul. He argues that the body is a liberator of the soul and finds historical parallels in Mandana Misra's Satadvaita.
• Consciousness in Everything: He posits that all beings, including plants and inorganic matter, possess consciousness, though in subtle forms.
• Harmony as Reality: Datta identifies existence, consciousness, and harmony as the attributes of reality. Harmony is recognized intuitively and is crucial for beauty and goodness.
• Extraversion as Spiritual Path: Contrary to the traditional Vedantic emphasis on introversion, Datta proposes an "extraversion" path where consciousness expands outward through widening interests, knowledge, power, and love, leading to universal identification.

R. D. Ranade:

• Guru Institution: Ranade is presented as a prominent guru, embodying the essential role of a spiritual teacher in Hinduism.
• Beatificism: His philosophy, beatificism, emphasizes self-realization as the unfolding and realization of the Atman within, achieved through love of God.
• Rejection of Advaita: He views Advaita's method of knowledge as dangerous and opposed to true mysticism. He believes the world is not illusory but can lead to God.
• Theistic Mysticism: Ranade understands mysticism in a theistic and conservative way, believing mystical intuition underlies ordinary faculties.
• The Disciple Seeks the Guru: He asserts that the disciple must seek and choose the guru, a departure from the common view.
• Focus on Love of God: For Ranade, love of God is the primary means to beatitude, with morality, meditation, and company of good people serving as important supports.

Conclusion: The author concludes by summarizing that these eight contemporary Vedanta philosophers, primarily from the Advaita school but also Visishtadvaita and Satadvaita, have made original contributions to Vedanta. Vedanta, despite being one of many Indian philosophies, remains dominant due to its unwavering search for Brahman and its capacity for new insights, keeping it a living tradition.