Viveka: a razão discriminativa e seu caráter soteriológico segundo a filosofia de Śaṅkarācārya

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to investigate and understand the nature and operability of the discriminative reason (viveka) in the soteriological knowledge of the Advaita Vedānta tradition. This investigation will mainly take place through the works of the Indian philosopher Śaṅkarācārya (séc. VIII), the greatest exponent of the Advaita Vedānta tradition. The treatises (prakaraṇas) and the commentaries (bhāṣyas) of Śaṅkarācārya highlight the relationship between ātman and Brahman; the final portion of the Vedas (vedānta), the Upaniṣads, reveals this relationship. The Vedas constitute the literary canon referring to the Vedic Revelation (śruti), which is the sacred foundation of Indian religiosity. According to Śaṅkarācārya, the ignorance (avidyā) imprisons the subject, and then this ignorance makes the subject circumstantially marked by suffering (duḥkha). Therefore, the overcoming of this circumstantial condition of suffering happens only when the subject becomes free from ignorance. The liberation (mokṣa) of ignorance depends entirely on the presence and guidance of a teacher (guru/ācārya) consecrated by the some tradition – in the case of this study, by the Advaita Vedānta tradition. Thus, is through the teacher that the disciple (śiṣya) receives the upanishadic teachings that leads to liberation.