वेदान्त पारिजात सौरभ (भगवद् निम्बार्काचार्य - द्वैताद्वैत वेदान्त ब्रह्मसूत्र भाष्य सटीक)

PREFACE vii under the name of 'Acintya-Bhedābheda-vāda', i. e. the Bhedābheda relation of Brahman and the Universe is Acintya or incomprehensible by reason. The doctrine of Nimbārka, which developed in the atmosphere of general reaction against Śaṃkara's Advaitism, shared the views of the above schools in their insistence on the reality of the Many. According to Nimbārka, Brahman and Jīva-Jagat are equally real as was also held by Rāmānuja, but the difference between them is not superseded by non-difference as the latter supposed. In fact, the difference between the two is just as significant as their non-difference. While it is true, as Rāmānuja thought, that the Jīva-Jagat or the entire universe inheres in the unity of Brahman as an organic whole and as such can lay no claim to separate existence, yet as the effect is different from the cause, in the same sense is the Many different from the One, and their difference is as fundamental as their non-difference. Nimbārka's system has therefore been called the Svābhāvika-Bhedā- bheda-vāda in which the relation between Brahman and the Jīva-Jagat is regarded as one of eternal difference-non-difference during Saṃsāra or the cosmic existence as well as Pralaya or dissolution, and not only during the former state as Bhāskara thought. According to his view even the freed Soul (Mukta-Jīvātman) is both different and non- different from Brahman and even in Pralaya does the Jagat inhere in Brahman as a distinct entity. In her English rendering of the Vedānta-Pārijāta-Saurabha and Vedānta-Kaustubha, Dr. Bose has not only given Nimbārka's reading and interpretation of each Sūtra, but has compared them with those of Śaṃkara, Rāmānuja, Śrīkaṇṭha, Bhāskara and Baladeva belonging to the antagonistic and allied schools of the Vedānta Philosophy. Differences from the religious and ethical grounds have not either been ignored. The present work therefore is not to be considered as a mere translation, but it gives also reviews of the main tenets of the post-Śaṃkara theistic schools which arose in opposition to Advaita-Vedāntism, though the full philosophical exposition of Nimbārka's doctrine and the comparative study of the development of Indian thought during this period has been discussed by her in a separate work which will form the third and concluding volume of this series. The work consists of four chapters. In Chapter I (Samanvayādhyāya), it is sought to establish that Brahman is the sole subject of all Scriptures. The nature of Brahman, His attributes and