Hindu Dharma: Mimamasa - Karmamarga

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Explication of Vedic Laws Of the fourteen branches of learning(caturdasa-vidya),after the four Vedas and the Sadanga,we have the four Upangas of the vedas remaining. 'Upa+anga'='Upanga. 'The prefix 'upa'is added to suggest what is auxiliary to a subject. 'Sabhanayaka' means speaker; 'upa-sabhanayaka' means deputy speaker. In the same way we have,after thr six Angas(Sadanga),the four Upangas. These are Mimamsa,Nyaya,the ...
 
No Concept of God in Mimamsa Why should the Acarya have sought a debate with Mandanamisra, the mimamsaka? ( A mimamsaka is an adherent of Purvamimamsa. We Uttaramimamsakas are called 'Vedantins'. ) The Acarya it was who revivified the Vedic religion and re-established it on a firm footing. Why, then, should such a preceptor have been critical of Mimamsa which is an Upanga of the very Vedas we prompted? Before answering this ...
 
Nyaya and Mimamsa :They brought about the Decline of Buddhism Many believe that Buddhism ceased to have a large following in India because it came under the attack of Sankara. This is not true. There are very few passages in the Acarya's commentaries critical of that religion, a religion that was opposed to the Vedas. Far more forcefully has he criticised the doctrines of Sankhya and Mimamsa that respect the Vedic tradition. He demolishes their view that Isvara is not the creator of the world and that it ...
 
Buddhism and Indian Society In my opinion at no time in our history did Buddhism in the fullest sense of that religion have a large following in India. Today a number of Hindus, who are members of the Theosophical Society, celebrate our festivals like other Hindus and conduct marriages in the Hindu way. There are many devotees of Sri Ramakrsna Parmahamsa practising our traditional customs. Sri C. Ramanujacariyar, 'Anna' (Sri N. Subramanya Ayyar) and some others ...
 
Sankara and Non- Vedantic Systems The Acarya views the last stage or asrama in a man's life as the years during which he renounces Vedic works and devotes himself to meditation and metaphysical inquiry. But, unlike the Buddha, he does not want Vedic karma to be given up in the earlier stages. According to him, only after a man cleanses his consciousness through years of Vedic rituals is he to become exclusively devoted Atmic inquiry. First accept the karma that Mimamsa asks us ...
 
Sankhya According to Sankhya, the Atman is Purusa and is the basis of all, though, at the same time detached from everything. In its view Maya which keeps everything going is Prakriti. The cosmos is contained in 24 'tattvas' ['thatnesses' or principles or categories] of which Prakrti is one- Prakrti is indeed the first of these and it has the name of'pradhana'. From it arises the second tattva of 'mahat'which is ...
 
Mimansa and Adi Sankara As we have already seen, Udayana and other supporters of the Nyaya system criticised BUddhism on the score that it was silent on the question of God, while mimamsakas like Kumarilabhatta attacked the same because it did not favour Vedic rituals. The acarya was in sympathy with these views and believed that Vedic sacraments, considered all-important by the mimamsakas were essential to the ...
 
Determining the Meaning of Vedic Texts The Vedas, as we know, contain 'vakyas' and 'adhyayas'. How are we to know their content, their meaning? What must we do to find out their purpose, their message? The rules according to which the Vedas are to be interpreted are contained in the Mimamsa sastra. If the Vedas are the law, Mimamsa is the law of interpretation. As I said before, when the government enacts a great number of ...
 
Mimamsa Beliefs Let me now speak alittle more on the doctrines of Mimamsa. Let us not worry about whether or not ther is a God. Let there be a God or let ther be none. Our duty is to perform the rites prescribed by the Vedas and they will yield fruits on their own. nay work we do produces its own results, doesn't it? Why do we need God in between? The work generates results on its own. Do we pay the greengrocer if he ...
 
Sankara's Reply What is Sankara's reply to this argument? What the Vedas state need not necessarily serve the purpose of involving us in any work. The mimamsakas accept the Vedas because, according to them, the karma mentioned in them serves a purpose. So the purpose served by karma is the message of the Vedas, not the karma itself. If to be without any karma, without any work, is itself a great purpose, must not the ...
 
Vedanta and Mimamsa Advaita or non-dualism is in agreement with Mimamsa up to a point. It accepts Vedic karma as well as the six pramanas (perceptions or sources of knowledge) defined by Kumarilabhatta. Sankara's non-dualism, Ramanuja's qualified non-dualism, and Madhva's dualism are all Vedantic doctrines and all three are not against Vedic rituals. While non-dualism accepts all the six pramanas of Mimamsa, qualified non-dualism accepts only three- pratyaksa, ...
 
How Mimamsa is Esteemed Mimamsa is of great help in understanding the meaning of the Vedic texts. For this reason many scholars, including those opposed to its karmamarga, have made a thorough study of it and also written books on it. Raju Sastri of Mannargudi (Tanjavur district), who was an outstanding Vedantin, Venkatasubba Sastri of Tiruvisanallur, Nilamegha Sastri of the same place, Krsnamacariyar of Rayampettah, Krsnatatacariyar, Cinnasvami Sastri of ...