『베단따수뜨라』(Vedānta-sūtra)에 대한 샹까라(Śaṅkara)와 라마누자(Rāmānuja)의 주석 비교 - 브라흐만(Brahman)과 세계의 관계를 중심으로

Abstract

The principal tenets of the six darśanas are stated in the form of sūtras or short aphorisms. They are intended to be as short as possible, free from doubt, able to bring out the essential meaning and put an end to many doubts. They try to avoid all unnecessary repetition and employ great economy of words. This extreme conciseness makes it difficult to understand the sūtras without a commentary. This paper is an attempt to compare Vedāntasūtra-Śaṅkara-bhāṣya and Śrībhāṣya of Rāmānuja with special reference to the relationship between Brahman and the world. For convenience' sake, I did the comparison and contrast under the categories of 1) nirguna-brahman and saguna-brahman, 2) māyāvāda and pariṇāmavāda, and 3) the reality of the world. Śaṅkara drew a distinction between niguṇa Brahman and saguṇa Brahman, between Brahman and Īśvara. This Īśvara of Śaṅkara was endowed with several attributes appropriate to a God of popular devotion, but the nirguṇa Brahman who constituted the sole existent Reality for Śaṅkara was devoid of any such qualification. However, Rāmānuja did not admit the distinction between nirguṇa Brahman and saguṇa Brahman. For Rāmānuja, Brahman is always saguṇa Brahman, and nirguṇa Brahman is a mere metaphysical abstraction. On the strength of the ārambhaṇādhikaraṇa of the Vedānta-sūtras (ii.1.15-20), both Śaṅkara and Rāmānuja hold that Brahman is the total cause of the world. However, their interpretations of the ontological status of the world, which are established on the basis of māyāvada and pariṇāmavāda respectively, are totally different. Śaṅkara recognized the relative reality of the empirical world(vyāvahārika-sattā) different from the Ultimate, and consequently we may recognize the possibility of a Creator and His creation in the vyāvahārika realm. However, from the standpoint of the ultimately real (paramārthika), both the Creator(Īśvara) and the created are the mere products of māyā-illusory appearance of the Absolute. As far as the conclusion that the world is non-different from Brahman, Rāmānuja agrees with Śaṅkara. However, the reasons for which the conclusion is maintained are exactly opposed to each other. According to Śaṅkara, the world and Brahman are non-different because the world is not real, whereas Rāmānuja maintains that because the world is as real as Brahman, they are non-different.