What is the Dualist philosophy?
Continuation from Hindu philosophy of nature..
All the vedanta philosophers whether Dvaitha(dualism) or Vishishtadvaitha(Qualified monism) accept that The JIVA or Soul or The real man is Pure in its nature.
All the vedanta philosophers whether Dvaitha(dualism) or Vishishtadvaitha(Qualified monism) accept that The JIVA or Soul or The real man is Pure in its nature.
According to dualists, the jiva or the real man, is very fine, minute. So far we see that man is a being who has first a gross body which dissolves very quickly, then a fine body which remains through aeons and then a JIVA. This jiva according to the vedantic philosophy, is eternal just as God is eternal. Nature is also eternal, but changefully eternal. The material of nature, prana and akasha is eternal, but it is changing into different forms eternally. But the jiva is not manufactured, either of akasha or prana; it is immaterial and therefore will remain forever. It is not the result of any combination of prana and akasha, and whatever is not the result of combination will never be destroyed, because destruction is going back to causes. The gross body is a compound of akasha and prana and therefore will be decomposed.
The fine body will also be decomposed, after a long time, but the jiva is simple and will never be destroyed. It was never born for the same reason. Nothing simple can be born. The same argument applies. That which is a compound only can be born. The whole of nature comprising millions and millions of souls under the will of GOD. God is all pervading, omniscient, formless, everywhere, and he is working through nature day and night. The whole of it is under his control. He is the eternal ruler so say the DUALISTs. Then the question comes, if god is the ruler of this universe, why did he create such a wicked universe, why must we suffer so much? They say it is not gods fault. It is our fault that we suffer. Whatever we sow we reap. He did not do anything to punish us. Man is born poor, or blind, or some other way. What is the reason? He had done something before he was born that way. The jiva has been existing for all the time, was never created. It has been doing all sorts of things all the time. Whatever we do reacts upon us. If we do good, we shall have happiness, and if evil unhappiness. So the jiva goes on enjoying and suffering, and doing all sorts of things.
What comes after death? All these vedanda philosophers accept that this jiva is by its own nature pure. But the ignorance covers its real nature, they say. As by evil deeds, it has covered itself with ignorance, so by good deeds it becomes conscious of its own nature again. Just a it is eternal, so its nature is pure. The nature of every being is pure.
The fine body will also be decomposed, after a long time, but the jiva is simple and will never be destroyed. It was never born for the same reason. Nothing simple can be born. The same argument applies. That which is a compound only can be born. The whole of nature comprising millions and millions of souls under the will of GOD. God is all pervading, omniscient, formless, everywhere, and he is working through nature day and night. The whole of it is under his control. He is the eternal ruler so say the DUALISTs. Then the question comes, if god is the ruler of this universe, why did he create such a wicked universe, why must we suffer so much? They say it is not gods fault. It is our fault that we suffer. Whatever we sow we reap. He did not do anything to punish us. Man is born poor, or blind, or some other way. What is the reason? He had done something before he was born that way. The jiva has been existing for all the time, was never created. It has been doing all sorts of things all the time. Whatever we do reacts upon us. If we do good, we shall have happiness, and if evil unhappiness. So the jiva goes on enjoying and suffering, and doing all sorts of things.
What comes after death? All these vedanda philosophers accept that this jiva is by its own nature pure. But the ignorance covers its real nature, they say. As by evil deeds, it has covered itself with ignorance, so by good deeds it becomes conscious of its own nature again. Just a it is eternal, so its nature is pure. The nature of every being is pure.
When through good deeds all its sins and misdeeds have been washed away, then the jiva becomes pure again and, when it becomes pure, it goes to what is called Devayana. Its organ of speech enters the mind. You cannot think without words. Whatever there is thought, there must be words. As words enter the mind, so the mind is resolved into the prana and the prana into the jiva. Then the jiva gets quickly out of the body, and goes to the solar regions, this universe has sphere after sphere. This earth is the world sphere, in which are moons suns and stars. Beyond that there is the solar sphere, and beyond that another which they call the lunar sphere. Beyond that there is the sphere which they call the sphere of lightning, the electric sphere, and when the Jiva goes there, there comes another Jiva, already perfect to receive it, and takes it to another world, the highest heaven, the Brahmaloka, where the Jiva lives eternally, no more to be born or die. It enjoys through eternity and gets all sorts of powers, except the power of creation. There is only one ruler of the universe and that is GOD. No one can become god; the DUALISTs maintain that if you say you are God, it is Blasphemy. All the powers except the creative come to Jiva, and if it likes to have different bodies and work in different parts of the world, it can do so.
If it orders all gods (here god means deva or angel and not The Supreme GOD) to come before it, if it wants its forefathers to come, they will all appear at its command. Such are its powers that it never feels any more pain, and if it wants it can live in the Brahmaloka through all eternity. This is the highest man, who has attained the love of God, who has become perfectly unselfish, perfectly purified, who has given up all desires, and who does not want to do anything except worship and love God. There are others that are not so high, who do works but want some reward. They say they will give so much to the poor, but want to go to heaven in return. When they die what becomes of them? The speech enters the mind, the mind enters the prana, the prana enters the Jiva, and the Jiva gets out, and goes to the lunar sphere, where it has a very good time for a long time. There it enjoys happiness, so long as the effect of its good deeds endures. When the same is exhausted it descents, and once again enters the life on earth according to its desire. In the lunar sphere, the Jiva becomes what we call a Deva or what the Christians or Mohommedans call an Angel. These gods are the names of certain positions; for instance, Indra the king of Devas, is the name of a position; thousands of men get to that position. When a virtuous man who has performed the highest of vedic rites dies, he becomes a king of devas; by that time the old king has gone down and again and become man. Just as kings change here, so the Devas, king of devas, angels also have to die. In heaven they will all die. The only deathless place is Brahmaloka, where alone there is no birth and death.
So the Jivas go to heaven, and have very good time except now and then when the demons give them chase. In our mythology it is said there are demons who sometimes trouble the Devas. In all mythologies you read how these demons and Devas fought, and the demons sometimes conquered the Devas, although many times, it seems, the demons did not do so many wicked things as the devas. In all mythologies, for instance you found the devas fond of women. So after their reward is finished, they fall down again, come through the clouds, through the rains, and thus gets into some grain or plant is eaten by men. The father gives them the material out of which to get a fitting body. When the material suits them no longer, they have to manufacture other bodies. Now there are the very wicked fellows, who do all sorts of diabolical things; they are born again as animals, and if they are very bad, they are born as very low animals, or become plants, or stones.
In the deva form they make no Karma at all; only man makes karma. Karma means work which will produce effect. When a man dies and becomes a deva he has only a period of pleasure, and during that time makes no fresh karma; it is simply a reward of his past good karma. When the good karma is worked out, then the remaining karma begins to take effect, and he comes down to earth. He becomes man again, and if he does very good works and purifies himself, he goes to Brahmaloka and comes back no more.
The animal is a state of sojourn for the Jiva evolving from lower forms. In course of time the animals becomes man. It is a significant fact that the human population is increasing and animal population is decreasing. The animal souls are all becoming men. So many species of animals have become men already where else have they gone?
In the Vedas there is no mention of hell. But our Puranas, the later books of our scriptures, thought that no religion could be complete unless hells were attached to it, and so they invented all sorts of hells. In some of these men, are sawed in half and continually tortured, but do not die. They are continually feeling intense pain, but the books are merciful enough to say that it is only for a period. Bad karma is worked out in that state and then they come back to earth, and get another chance, so this human form is the great chance. It is called the karma body, in which we decide our fate. We are running in a huge circle, and this is the point in the circle which determines the future. So this considered the most important form that there is; man is greater than DEVAS.
So far discussed is DUALISM, its pure and simple..
If it orders all gods (here god means deva or angel and not The Supreme GOD) to come before it, if it wants its forefathers to come, they will all appear at its command. Such are its powers that it never feels any more pain, and if it wants it can live in the Brahmaloka through all eternity. This is the highest man, who has attained the love of God, who has become perfectly unselfish, perfectly purified, who has given up all desires, and who does not want to do anything except worship and love God. There are others that are not so high, who do works but want some reward. They say they will give so much to the poor, but want to go to heaven in return. When they die what becomes of them? The speech enters the mind, the mind enters the prana, the prana enters the Jiva, and the Jiva gets out, and goes to the lunar sphere, where it has a very good time for a long time. There it enjoys happiness, so long as the effect of its good deeds endures. When the same is exhausted it descents, and once again enters the life on earth according to its desire. In the lunar sphere, the Jiva becomes what we call a Deva or what the Christians or Mohommedans call an Angel. These gods are the names of certain positions; for instance, Indra the king of Devas, is the name of a position; thousands of men get to that position. When a virtuous man who has performed the highest of vedic rites dies, he becomes a king of devas; by that time the old king has gone down and again and become man. Just as kings change here, so the Devas, king of devas, angels also have to die. In heaven they will all die. The only deathless place is Brahmaloka, where alone there is no birth and death.
So the Jivas go to heaven, and have very good time except now and then when the demons give them chase. In our mythology it is said there are demons who sometimes trouble the Devas. In all mythologies you read how these demons and Devas fought, and the demons sometimes conquered the Devas, although many times, it seems, the demons did not do so many wicked things as the devas. In all mythologies, for instance you found the devas fond of women. So after their reward is finished, they fall down again, come through the clouds, through the rains, and thus gets into some grain or plant is eaten by men. The father gives them the material out of which to get a fitting body. When the material suits them no longer, they have to manufacture other bodies. Now there are the very wicked fellows, who do all sorts of diabolical things; they are born again as animals, and if they are very bad, they are born as very low animals, or become plants, or stones.
In the deva form they make no Karma at all; only man makes karma. Karma means work which will produce effect. When a man dies and becomes a deva he has only a period of pleasure, and during that time makes no fresh karma; it is simply a reward of his past good karma. When the good karma is worked out, then the remaining karma begins to take effect, and he comes down to earth. He becomes man again, and if he does very good works and purifies himself, he goes to Brahmaloka and comes back no more.
The animal is a state of sojourn for the Jiva evolving from lower forms. In course of time the animals becomes man. It is a significant fact that the human population is increasing and animal population is decreasing. The animal souls are all becoming men. So many species of animals have become men already where else have they gone?
In the Vedas there is no mention of hell. But our Puranas, the later books of our scriptures, thought that no religion could be complete unless hells were attached to it, and so they invented all sorts of hells. In some of these men, are sawed in half and continually tortured, but do not die. They are continually feeling intense pain, but the books are merciful enough to say that it is only for a period. Bad karma is worked out in that state and then they come back to earth, and get another chance, so this human form is the great chance. It is called the karma body, in which we decide our fate. We are running in a huge circle, and this is the point in the circle which determines the future. So this considered the most important form that there is; man is greater than DEVAS.
So far discussed is DUALISM, its pure and simple..
