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61) Darshan Shastras.

(61) Darshan Shastras.

There are six Darshan Shastras called the six schools of philosophy. They are: (1) Poorv Mimansa by Sage

Jaimini, (2) Nyay by Sage Gautam, (3) Vaisheshik by Sage Kanad, (4) Sankhya by Bhagwan Kapil, (5) Yog bySage Patanjali, and (6) Uttar Mimansa (Brahm Sutra) by Bhagwan Ved Vyas. All the six Darshan Shastras are in

sutra form.

Significance of the Darshan Shastras and their period.

The Vedic literature is so extensive that it is hard even for a Vedic genius to comprehend and remember the theme

of all of them. So Sage Jaimini, who was the pupil of Ved Vyas, wrote the Poorv Mimansa Sutras to facilitate the

correct understanding of the Vedas. Nyay and Vaisheshik Sutras describe the logical steps of how to determine

the rights and the wrongs in terms of finding the absolute good for a person. Sankhya Sutras explain the extent of

mayic creation and the Divinity beyond that. It tells that the entire mayic creation is worth discarding and only the

Divinity is to be attained because that is the only source of Bliss. Yog Sutras then explain the practical process of

heart purification which may qualify a person to experience the absolute Divine. Then the Brahm Sutra (UttarMimansa) reveals this secret that God is absolute Divinity and absolute Bliss, and He is Gracious. So, yearnfully

remember Him and with His Grace experience His absolute

Blissfulness forever. This is the general outline of all the six Darshan Shastras.

Brahm Sutra.

Brahm Sutra by Ved Vyas has four chapters and each chapter has four sections. It starts with,

defining the prerequisite which means that the Brahm Sutra is only for that person who is fully renounced and hasa real deep desire to know God. Then it declares,

The true liberation could only be attained by lovingly surrendering to Him. Further it tells,

God has unlimited and absolute virtues.

In this way, from the very beginning, the Brahm Sutra in simple wordings reveals the true theme of the

Upnishads, that God has His Divine personal form with all of His Divine virtues. The formless (nirakar) aspect of

God cannot have Divine virtues as it is formless, and thus action-less and virtueless. Thus, the loving form of God

is desirable; and because He is Gracious, kind, loving and all powerful, His Grace would eliminate the mayic

bondage of any soul when (tannishthasya) he wholeheartedly engrosses his mind in His loving remembrance.

Brahm Sutra, at the end of the first chapter, describes the existing status of the universe and tells that the universe

is not the manifestation ofonlymaya as Sankhya Darshan says, it is also the embodiment of God.

Thissutra is the exact translation of the Upnishadic statement,

This world is a representation of both: God and maya.

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61) Darshan Shastras.

For a soul, who has a material mind, this world is only a manifestation ofmaya. But for a Divine Saint who has

attained God realization (according to our scriptures) the whole world becomes the form of his God.

In the second chapter it details the existing form of a soul and says, .The souls are

unlimited in number and infinitesimal in form, and are (ansh) a fractional part of God. God is absolute and

unlimited and logically there cannot be fractions of the absolute. Although the word ansh means fraction, but it

also means that all the souls are God-like Divine by nature, like a drop of water of the ocean is substantially the

same as the ocean. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu clarifies this issue and says that God has a power called the jeev

shakti.

All the souls are the part (ansh) of that.

In the third chapter, the Brahm Sutra further explains the situation of a soul which is under the bondage ofmaya

and keeps on reincarnating in various forms of life. It also tells about the nirakarform of worship and the

disciplines, and at the end it tells about the greatness ofbhakti and says that, through

bhakti a devotee easily receives the Grace of God.

In the fourth chapter, it mainly explains about the devotion and meditation, about the personal and impersonal

(sakar, nirakar)forms of God, and the outcome of such practices. It also gives a detailed description about the

gyanis andyogis who reachBrahm lok, the abode of Brahma, and out of them, some are liberated and some are

not.

In the beginning of chapter four it tells that, a devotee should repeatedly try to

remember the devotional teachings all the time, and do his regular devotions while, lovingly

meditating upon the form of his beloved God. At the very end of the fourth chapter it tells that,

the devotees doing bhakti to a personal form of God receive a very special

unimaginable Divine gift and that is their experiential synonymity with God in His Divine abode. It means that

the bhaktSaint, in the Divine abode of God, enjoys the same amount of Divine Bliss as his beloved God

experiences. It is the absolute kindness of God that He makes an eternally maya- inflicted soul equally Blissful as

Himself.

This is the Brahm Sutra in a nutshell. It represents the theme of the Upnishads which are the essence of the entire

literature of the Vedic realm.

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