Vadiraja's Refutation of Sankara's (Shankaracharya's) Non-Dualism Clearing the Way for Theism 

From the Jacket

In this volume L. Stafford Betty translates the provides commentary on a work by the sixteenth-century Hindu philosopher-theologian and poet Vadiraja. Vadiraja was a follower of Madhava, the originator of the system known as Dvaita (Dualist) Vedanta, which teaches that God is the Supreme Person and is different from His creation. Madhva's system clashes head-on with the redoubtable Sankara's Advaita (Non-dualist) Vedanta, which teaches that God is impersonal and is ultimately identical with all that is. As is today the case, in Vadiraja's day also Sankara's Non-dualism was regarded by the majority of India's intellectual elite as her finest and purest presentation of the Eternal Truth enshrined in the Vedas. 

In this work Vadiraja passionately contest Non-dualism's supposed supremacy and fidelity to Scripture. Combining deft analogy, often charming metaphor, and a ruthless method of reduction ad absurdum, he cuts and swipes until the imposing Goliath of Non-dualism has been, to his mind, destroyed. 

Professor Betty has provided a concise, fairly literally translation of the text, which is written in the extremely compact style characteristic of Dualist polemics. His extensive commentary, most of it original, is perhaps the clearest guide to the tortuous intricacies of Dualist-Non-dualist dialectic in any Western language.

The Sanskrit text and a glossary-index are included.

About the Author

"L. Stafford Betty is assistant professor of Religious Studies at California State Collage, Bakersfield. He has published articles on various aspects of Eastern philosophy in Religious Studies (Cambridge University), International Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy East and West, and The Journal of Chinese Philosophy."

Contents:

Foreword By Dr. B.N.K. Sharma 

Introduction

Notes on the Translation

Section
I.        Invocation
II.       Vishnu's Supremacy
III.      Refutation of the Non-Dualist Interpretation of Scripture
IV.      Refutation of the Non-Dualist "Vyavaharika-Doctrine"
V.       Proof of God's Difference from Souls from an Analysis of the Epic and Puranic Tradition
VI.      Refutation of Non-Dualist Epistemology
VII.     Further Refutations of the Doctrine That Objects we see are Illusion
VIII.    Demonstration of the Impossibility of Valid Sense-Knowledge without a Subject-Object-Relation
IX.      Final Considerations showing the Inexplicability of Knowledge through Superimposition
X.       The Truth of Vishnu's Supremacy and the Falsity of the Doctrine declaring His Supremacy "Merely Conventional"
XI.      A Dilemma for Non-Dualism: Either Brahman Itself or mere Matter suffers Karmic Debts
XII.     Refutation of the Reflection-Analogy used by Non-Dualists to show Brahman's Identity with the Soul
XIII.    Hymn to Difference
XIV.    Proof of Difference through a Consideration of God's Objectivity and the Soul's Subjectivity - Refutation of the Non-Dualist Version of Brahman's "Self-Luminosity"
XV.     Refutation of Illusionism
XVI.    The Importance of Sense-Experience in arriving at the Truth of Difference and the Falsity of Identity
XVII.   Some Additional Consideration Negating Identity
XVIII. Conclusion
           Who Is The Victor? An Estimate
           Appendix -
                Sanskrit Text of Nyayaratnavali
           Select Bibliography
           Glossary-Index

Of Related Interest:

Life of Shankaracharya - The Adventures of a Poet Philosopher

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