• DOI:10.1007/S10781-014-9258-Z
• Corpus ID: 170638191

Contemplative Grammars: Śaṅkara’s Distinction of Upāsana and Nididhyāsana

@article{Dalal2016ContemplativeG,
  title={Contemplative Grammars: Śaṅkara’s Distinction 
of Upāsana and Nididhyāsana},
  author={Neil Dalal},
  journal={Journal of Indian Philosophy},
  year={2016},
  volume={44},
  pages={179-206}
}

• Neil Dalal
• Published 1 March 2016
• Philosophy
• Journal of Indian Philosophy

AbstractŚaṅkara’s Advaita Vedānta is largely dismissive of ritual action, in part because the metaphysical position of non-duality erodes any independent existence of the individual as a ritual agent, and because knowledge of non-duality is thought to be independent of action. However, a close reading of Śaṅkara shows that he does accept forms of devotional practice that have remained largely marginalized in studies of Advaita Vedānta. This article compares and contrasts contemplative devotion, in the form of visualized meditations (upāsanas) on īśvara, with knowledge-like contemplation of non-duality (nididhyāsana). The challenge is that the Upaniṣads provide no clear distinctions between the two, and these upāsanas appear indistinguishable from nididhyāsana because they incorporate a conceptual identity with brahman or appear to affirm non-duality in some sense. Furthermore, the practices of both are rather obscure despite their significance in Śaṅkara’s system. Analyzing Śaṅkara’s interpretations of their underlying Upaniṣadic sentence structures in terms of grammatical apposition and reconstructing their use of visualization, superimposition, and negation, provides clues to properly delineate these practices, and to understand their epistemological functions and potential religious experiences.