अद्वैतसूत्रार्थपद्धति: Advaita Sutrartha Paddhatih

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It is a matter of great pride for us to present this edition of Sri Krishna Avadhuta's "Advaitha Sutrartha Paddhati" edited by Prof. D. Prahlada Char, an eminent scholar and a product of the Poornprajna Vidyapeetha.

This event is a reflection of the hoary traditions in this country of showing respect and regard to the several schools of thought and the faith and beliefs engendered by them. The Sri Sumadhva Vijaya, refers to Sri Madhvacharya, the great protagonist and exponent of Dvaita system of thought expounding the principles of Sri Shankara's Advaita system and explaining the texts of the Advaita system to such of his disciples who desired to achieve a mature mastery over the Advaita Vedanta of Sri Shankara. This is an example of tolerance of religious sects and freedom of thought that history has to take note of and follow. And Sri Krishna Avadhoota is one who has grown up in the tradition of this liberalism. And his commentary touches on several fields of thought like, Dvaita- Advaita - Vishishtadvaita, Nyaya- Vaiseshika, Mimamsa, Poetry, Drama, etc,.

Prof. D. Prahlada Char, former Vice-Chancellor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Tirupati, has edited this great work with the mastery born out of his experience of teaching Nyaya and Vedanta Shastras and his intimate acquaintance with philosophy. And we are blessed by his academic activities. The Samsodhana Mandiram is thank- ful to him for this. We take the opportunity to offer to him our respectful namaskarams.

Our most respectful obeisances lie to H.H. Sri Vishveshatirtha Swamiji, the founder of this Samsodhana Mandiram and the Chairman of our parent body, the Poornaprajna Vidyapeetha Pratishthana, for his sustained encouragement in our attempts.

We offer our grateful thanks to Smt. Rajalakshmi Srinivasan, Chairperson of the Poornaprajna Samshodhana Mandiram, for her continous encouragement at every step. Dr. Srinivasa Varakhedi and Sri Vijayindra Abbur have corrected the initial proof and I express my gratitude to these young scholars. I also appreciate the effort of Lalita Printers who have brought this book very neatly .

The extraordinary and almost unique environment in our country, wherein, different philosophical systems were born, received intellectual nourishment, public acceptance and even royal support, and established themselves as self-contained systems with all the necessary appurtenances among similar ones subsequently is nowhere more aptly illustrated than by the complete catholicity of many writers recognised as ardent followers of one school, who have composed works on subjects pertaining to other philosophical systems. The tradition is very old, as the same author has sometimes composed works on more than one tradition, all of which are exposition for each system. Vacaspati Misra one of the intellectual giants of his country, thus authored six master pieces in each of the sad darsanas, which are totally faithful to the respective schools. The unique Vyasatirtha another eminent philosopher par-excellence, whose Nyayamrta is long recognised as an authoritative source for understanding Advaita doctrines in some of their most subtle aspects, which are rendered faithfully, only to be refuted completely later by his arguments strongly supported by pramanas has also been thus complimented by the redoubtable Mahamahopadhyaya Anantakrsna Sastri. Sri Krsnavadhuta, an ardent devotee of Sri Raghavendra Swami, himself a commentator par excellence of the Dvaita school, has followed the glorious tradition of complete intellectual freedom and mastery over rival traditions, by composing Advaita sutrarthapaddhati the work describing the logical structure and arrangement of the adhikaranas of the Brahma Sutras, as per the Brahma Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankaracarya. The very core of the intellectual approach that one could never be said to have understood the Siddhanta fully and correctly unless all opposite view points have been fully understood and analysed is nowhere more fully illustrated than by these efforts of total intellectual freedom and Clarity. 'Ante siddhastu siddhantah' is the axiomatic belief that promotes constant debate between followers of different contending schools, which though superficially repetitive and even sterile, are really fought for the minds of the people, the emphasis being on quality rather than quantity. The rules of the intellectual game are strict and no mediocrity in thought, presentation or loss of data in study and slackness in efforts, is accepted. Thus, this work which has many original features is a must for studies of the Advaita tradition.

Advaita Sutrartha Paddhati - the path of interpreting the Brahma Sutras, according to the Advaita school - by Sri Krishnavadhuta Pandita of the 19th century AD., as the title indicates, is a unique work aimed at explaining the Brahma Sutras following the Bramha Sutra Bhasya of Sri Sankara and other Brahma sutra related works 1 of the Advaita school. The uniqueness of the work, is that it comes from an erudite scholar of the Dvaita Vedanta and an ordent devotee of Sri Raghavendratirtha - the commentator par-excellence, of the Dvaita Vedanta tradition. The work is very helpful to the students and scholars alike, to understand the meaning of the Sutras according to the Advaita tradition. Unfortunately, the available text is incomeplete, as it is available only for the first chapter - Samanvayadhyaya of the Brahma Sutras.

From the very beginning of the text, it is very clear that Sri Krsnavadhuta Pandita is a systematic writer, being always conscious of the scope and the self imposed limitation of the work. The information provided at the outset, about the structure of the Brahma Sutra text, the nature of the intra-relations of the adhikaranas which make the Brahma Sutras a coherent text, and the examples given to explain the intra-relations such as aksepik sangati, drstanta sangati, pratyudaharana sangati etc., indeed, help the students to understand the internal logical arrangements of all the adhikaranas of the Brahma Sutras.

Sri Krsnavadhuta Pandita is conscious of the fact that any student would only continue to evince keen interest in the study of a text, particularly that of an abstruse nature of the kind of the Brahma Sutras, if he is made, though generally, aware of the main points discussed in the text. Hence, the brief exposition of the scheme of the adhyayas and padas, according to Sankara, given in the introductory portion, assumes significance.

According to Sankara, the first chapter is aptly called Sarnanvayadhyaya as it expounds the culmination of the purport of all the Upanisads. The second Adhyaya called Avirodhadhyaya intends to refute all the possible objections on what was expounded in the samanvaya adhyaya. The third chapter Sadhanadhyaya aims at explaining the instruments of knowing the Brahman. Ultimately, the Phatadhyaya - the fourth chapter determines the nature of the result of the knowledge of the Brahman. The first pada of the first adhyaya, according to Sankara, discusses the Vedanta texts that contain clear and unmistakable 'indications of Brahman. The second pada discusses the Upanisadic statements that contain indefinite marks of Brahman which is intended as the object of meditation. The third pada also discusses similar aspasta bramhalinga statements with a difference that the Brahman is intended in these statements as just jneya - to be known. The fourth pada discusses the meaning of certain terms such as avyakta which are shrouded with ambiguity.