Classical Indian Epistemology and Metaphysics Questions and Answers

Answer: B

According to Rāmānuja the human soul is of atomic size, option B. In his Viśiṣṭādvaita the individual soul (jīva) is aṇu, extremely small, but it is conscious all over the body through its attribute of knowledge, which pervades the body.

All-pervading (option A) is the nature of Brahman and, in some schools, of the soul, but not of Rāmānuja's. Medium size (option C) is the Jaina view, in which the soul takes the size of its body. Option D is wrong because atomic size is the doctrine.

Answer: C

According to Rāmānuja the relation between the self and God is that of both identity and difference, option C. The soul is a mode or attribute of God and is inseparable from Him, as the body is from the soul, so it is one with God as a part of Him and yet is different from Him.

Pure identity (option A) is Śaṅkara's view, and pure difference (option B) is Madhva's. Option D, neither, is wrong because the relation is one of difference in identity. This is the central claim of Viśiṣṭādvaita.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is that liberation means similarity between God and the soul, option B. For Rāmānuja the liberated soul attains likeness to God in nature, in knowledge and bliss, and lives in his presence, but it does not become identical with Him.

Identity (option A) is the Śaṅkara view. Option C joins both, and option D denies both. The key follows Rāmānuja's teaching that the soul remains distinct even in liberation, so only similarity is accepted.

Answer: B

The theory of error accepted by Śaṅkara is anirvacanīyakhyātivāda, option B. In the illusion of silver in a shell, the silver is neither real nor unreal, and is indescribable, since it is sublated by later knowledge but is also seen as present.

Akhyātivāda (option A) is the Prabhākara view and anyathākhyātivāda (option C) is the Nyāya view. Satkhyātivāda (option D) is the view of Rāmānuja, in which every cognition is of something real. Only option B names the Advaita view.

Answer: A

Paul Deussen, printed here as Paul Diason, says that Upanishad means secret instructions, in the sense of the secret teaching given by the teacher to the pupil who sits near him.

Keith, Radhakrishnan and Shankara explained the Upanishads in other ways, so the key gives Deussen as the one who gave this meaning.

Deussen was a German scholar of Sanskrit and Indian philosophy who wrote on the Upanishads.

Answer: C

According to Vedic literature the movements of the stars and planets are guided by Rta, the cosmic order that governs the course of nature and of the gods themselves.

The will of God and the will of the devatas are not the guiding principle in the Vedic view, in which the gods themselves follow Rta, and Yajna is the ritual by which people take part in the order, not the cause of the heavenly movements.

Rta is also the root of the later idea of dharma.

Answer: D

The view that the self is of the size of the body (dehaparimana) is upheld by Jainism, which says that the soul expands or contracts to fill the body it enters, like the light of a lamp.

The Buddhists deny a permanent self and the Carvakas identify the self with the body, so neither of them holds that the soul is of the size of the body, and the option naming both fails as well.

Jainism holds that the soul is a substance that has size and shape that follow its body.

Answer: C

The five Skandhas of Buddhism, in order, are rupa (form), vedana (feeling), samjna (perception), samskara (mental formations) and vijnana (consciousness). That is the sequence in option C.

Option A includes Samanya, which is not a Skandha, and options B and D put samjna or vijnana in the wrong place, so only option C gives the usual order.

The five Skandhas are together said to make up what is called a person, with no permanent self behind them.

Answer: B

Jain metaphysics is known as realistic pluralism. It holds that the world is real and independent of the mind and is made of many substances, the souls (jiva) and the non-souls (ajiva) such as matter, space and time.

It is not idealistic, since it does not say that reality is only mind, and it is not monistic, since it does not reduce all things to one substance.

Its pluralism lies in the many eternal souls and the many kinds of matter that it accepts.

Answer: A

The Niyamas in Yoga Darshana are given in the order sauca (purity), santosa (contentment), tapas (austerity), svadhyaya (study of the self or scripture) and Isvarapranidhana (surrender to God), as in the Yoga Sutra.

Options B, C and D put Isvarapranidhana or tapas before sauca, or change the order of the rest, so only option A follows the Yoga Sutra.

The Niyamas follow the five Yamas, which come first in the eight limbs of Yoga.