Bhedabheda, aka: Bheda-abheda, Bhedābheda; 4 Definition(s)

Introduction

Bhedabheda means something in Hinduism, Sanskrit, Marathi. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.

In Hinduism

General definition (in Hinduism)

("indentity-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 thast these three levels are identical, yet different. Thus the world is identical to Brahman but is subjet 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 (Ssamsara), unlike Brahman.

Bhedābheda Vedānta is a subschool of Vedānta. Bhedābheda is a Sanskrit word meaning "difference and non-difference".

The characteristic position of all the different Bhedābheda Vedānta schools is that the individual self (jīvātman) is both different and not different from the ultimate reality known as Brahman. Bhedābheda reconciles the positions of two other major schools of Vedānta.

The Advaita (Non-dual) Vedānta that claims that the individual self is completely identical to Brahman, and the Dvaita (Dualist) Vedānta that teaches complete difference between the individual self and Brahman. Bādarāyaṇa’s Brahma Sūtra (c. 4th century CE) may also have been written from a Bhedābheda Vedāntic viewpoint.

Each thinker within the Bhedābheda Vedānta tradition has their own particular understanding of the precise meanings of the philosophical terms "difference" and "non-difference". Bhedābheda Vedāntic ideas can traced to some of the very oldest Vedāntic texts, including quite possibly Bādarāyaṇa’s Brahma Sūtra (c. 4th century CE).

Bhedābheda Vedāntic ideas can traced to some of the very oldest Vedāntic texts, including quite possibly Bādarāyaṇa’s Brahma Sūtra (app. 4th c. CE). Bhedābheda ideas also had an enormous influence on the devotional (bhakti) schools of India’s medieval period. Among medieval Bhedābheda thinkers are Nimbārka (13th Century CE), founder of the Nimbārka Sampraday which is now centred in Vrindāvan, Vallabha (1479-1531 CE), founder of the Puṣṭimārga devotional sect now centered in Nathdwara, Rajasthan, and Caitanya (1485-1533 CE) the founder of the Gaudīya Vaiṣṇava sect based in the northeastern Indian state of West Bengal.

Languages of India and abroad

Marathi-English dictionary

bhēdābhēda (भेदाभेद).—m (bhēda by redup.) Difference, diversity, dissimilitude. Ex. brahmasvarūpīṃ kāṃhīṃ bhē0 nāhīṃ.

bhēdābhēda (भेदाभेद).—m Difference, diversity.

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