What would be the relationship between JIvAtmA and ParamAtmA?
This is an important question raised and answered by each of the schools in its own distinct way.
One school says that the JIvAtmA will always be distinct from the ParamAtmA; and in that state of moksha, the JIvAtmA would enjoy infinite bliss by worshipping the ParamAtmA with Bhakti – that is the Dvaita conclusion.
Another says: Even though the JIvAtmA will be a separate soul doing Bhakti towards ParamAtmA, it will have the feeling of the ParamAtmA immanent in it as its soul; this is Vishishtadvaita.
Still another says: When the Sun rises the stars do not lose their existence; they just disappear from view, because of the luminosity of the Sun; so also in moksha, the JIvAtmA, though it does not lose its existence, will have its own little consciousness submerged in the Absolute Consciousness of the ParamAtmA – this is the doctrine of Shaiva-siddhanta.
The school of philosophy propagated by Adi Shankara Bhagavat-pada is called Advaita. It says something totally different from all the above.
It discards all that talk about the JIvAtmA escaping from this world, from this samsara, about the JIvAtmA going and joining with the ParamAtmA and all the consequent underlying assumptions about this world and the so-called world of moksha and the relationship between the two.
There is no such thing as ‘this world’; it is only mAyA. Moksha is not a place or a world. When the Atma is released from the bondage of the mind, that is moksha. It may be right here and now.
The above comments make a mistake normally attributed to casual visitors to the Vedanta who assume that Advaita Philosophy was started by Adi Sankara and since he is supposed to have been living during the period 800 AD Hinduism is being castigated for having various gods and Adi Sankara after Buddha changed the course of the philosophy by adopting the Advaita doctrine. This is not correct as the Vedanta was Advaita only right from the beginning of the Vedic period and it was later on when many people in the Kali Yuga did not understand the import of the meaning of Maya and the world of projections started the other schools of thought like Dwaita, Vashist Advaita etc. In fact the many authors quoted for the schools of thought did not have any dispute with Adi Sankara but followed different course only to explain to the followers by taking into account their mind set In fact Gaudapada who was earlier to Adi Sankara in his Karika was vehement in his advaitic stance. What Sankara introduced was "Relative Reality" whereby he introduced a concept of Body being relatively real as long as the Jeevatman is not realized. Once we realize our SELF the concept of oneness comes in and there is no world or creation at all. V Sundaram
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