Bhedabhada

(“identity-in-difference”) Philosophical
school whose best-known figures were
Bhartrprapancha and Bhaskara. The
Bhedabhada position identified three
levels of being: the Ultimate Reality
known as Brahman, the “witness” consciousness (sakshin) in the human
being, and the world. The school paradoxically asserted that these three levels
are identical, yet different. Thus the
world is identical to Brahman but is subject to change and decay, unlike
Brahman. In the same way, while each
human soul is identical to Brahman, it is
also subject to bondage and reincarnation (samsara), unlike Brahman. The
bondage of the soul was caused by the
primal ignorance known as avidya, but
it could be erased by a combination of
action and awareness (jnanakarmasamucchaya). The basic philosophical problem for Bhartrprapancha and
his followers was that because they
believed that Brahman was actually
transformed into the world and the Self
(parinamavada), it followed that
Brahman was subject to bondage and
ignorance. Thus, if one must destroy
avidya to gain liberation, one must also
destroy part of Brahman. These were
difficult ideas to defend since the transcendence of Brahman was well established by sacred texts such as the
Upanishads, and this problem may
account for the school’s relatively
short life.