Cosmology in Rāmānuja’s Viśiṣṭādvaita | Rāmānuja
Cosmology in Rāmānuja’s Viśiṣṭādvaita
The cosmology of Viśiṣṭādvaita is based on the integrity of the causal relation in its mechanical, teleological and spiritual aspects of uniformity and moral progression.
Brahman is the ground of the cosmic order as its creator, sustainer and destroyer in terms of immanence and transcendence. Creation is not out of nothing, but is only the transformation of the potential into the actual (sat-kārya-vāda).
The effect is continuous with the cause temporally and logically and does not contradict it, and by applying this rule to religion the Vedāṅtin concludes that by knowing Brahman everything is known.
The Real (sat) without a second wills to be the many and becomes the world of name and form (nāma-rūpa) by its own inner creative urge.
God before creation is without any difference of name and form and the same, after creation, differentiates itself into the infinity of the space-time world and individuals and becomes their Inner Self.
The cosmos is a physical and moral order and is sustained by the will of the Lord. When vice predominates over virtue, Īśvara destroys the world and thus prevents evil.
The powers of doing evil by jīva are withdrawn for a while by the redemptive will of Īśvara, and punishment (daṇḍana) is ultimately the effect of mercy (dayā).
Creation and dissolution take place in a cyclic way endlessly and the cosmic purpose of the world process is the liberation of souls.
Causality connotes continuity in spite of change. Nature (prakṛti) is subject to transformation (pariṇāma), that is, change in which the potential becomes the actual and the cause is continuous with the effect.
The self is morally free to strive towards perfection for itself. God has the inner purpose of adapting the process of nature to the spiritual progress of the individual and moulding him into His own nature (tanmaya).
The evolutionary process of nature here is of the Sāṁkhya pattern which is perfected by the addition of the twenty-sixth category of- the Supreme Self or God(Puruṣottama) who enters into the heart of creation as śarīrin or over-soul.
It is the divine creative urge that makes prakṛti energize and evolve into mahat, ahaṁkāra the eleven sense-organs including manas, the five tanmātras and the five bhūtas.
Then the process of individuation goes on by Īśvara entering into the jīvas as their Inner Self and bestowing bodies to them equitably, according to their previous karma.
In this way there is infinity of individual (jīvas) from the amoeba to gods. Evolution is followed by involution and the process goes on in a uniform rhythmic manner.
Ultimately creation is the re-creation or sportive spontaneity of the Lord or Līlā in which the idea of pariṇāma and the moral idea of karma are reinterpreted by recognizing the reality of prakṛti, puruṣa and Puruṣottama and avoiding the extremes of naturalism, personalism and idealism.
Evolution of nature is an occasion for the moral progress of self (puruṣa) and his attaining godliness.
As the Vedānta is directly interested in the spiritual knowledge of Brahman by the self, cosmology as the philosophy of nature is only an indirect aid to such spiritual knowledge.