Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Study)
by Sadhu Gyanananddas | 2021 | 123,778 words
This page relates ‘Viveka (Discernment)’ of the study on the Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam in Light of Swaminarayan Vachanamrut (Vacanamrita). His 18th-century teachings belong to Vedanta philosophy and were compiled as the Vacanamrita, revolving around the five ontological entities of Jiva, Ishvara, Maya, Aksharabrahman, and Parabrahman. Roughly 200 years later, Bhadreshdas composed a commentary (Bhasya) correlating the principles of Vachanamrut.
12.5. Viveka (Discernment)
In the spiritual path, one requires to know what is appropriate and what is inappropriate. The sense of knowing the difference between the both is viveka. Viveka means the sense of discrimination needed for the purpose of spiritual self-ascent. It refers to the adeptness of discriminating between real and unreal, eternal and transient. Viveka consists in knowing oneself as ātman distinct from mind, ego, vital breath etc. It consists of knowing oneself as the eternal, immortal ātman, the servile devotee of Parabrahman, as against the body and mind that are changing and perishable.[1] Bhadreśadāsa also adds that one must discern the distinction between Brahman and Parabrahman. He calls it “vivekaḥ”[2]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 4
[2]:
Īśa-upaniṣad 1, p.2