Bhāskarācārya

Bhāskara’s take on Advaita

Bhāskara is the trail-blazer for the post-Śaṅkara schools of Vedānta which did not agree with Śaṅkara’s brand of advaita based on māyāvāda, the theory of the unreality of this world. He is a strict Vedāntin in the sense that he takes his stand on the Upaniṣads and the Brahmasūtras. His commentary on the latter expounds his philosophy.

Bhāskara advocates the acceptance of the direct meaning of all the passages of the Upaniṣads without any distinction. He presents a Brahman who has innumerable auspicious attributes, but without any particular form. He has twofold power—the bhoktṛśakti (the power of the enjoyer) and the bhogyaśakti (the power of the enjoyed). Using these two powers He transforms Himself into the acetana or insentient objects and the jīvas or the sentient souls. Though this transformation is real, it does not affect Him in any way. The jīvas in their essential nature are one with Brahman, but get differentiated from Him in the state of bondage due to the upādhis, or limiting adjuncts—the bodies and minds—which are real. These upādhis, though real, are not nitya or eternal. They are to be considered as real since they are actually experienced. But in the state of liberation they become one with Brahman even as the rivers flowing into the ocean become one with it.

Bhāskara considers this world as the kāryarūpa or effect of Brahman and hence real.

As regards to the sādhānās, Bhāskara recommends performance of scripture-ordained duties without any desire for their fruits and the practice of meditation on Brahman as also the jīva’s oneness with Him. Since he does not accept a Personal God, there is no place for divine grace in his system.