Abstract
This paper explores the anvaya and the vyatireka form of Parabrahman described in the Vacanāmṛta and Swami Bhadreshdas’ Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā, both principal texts of the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana. Within these works, Parabrahman’s anvaya form is described as the form of Parabrahman that pervades other animate and inanimate beings. Although Paramātman is described as manifest within these beings, he is understood to exhibit only some aspects of his divine powers through them. Within the Akṣarabrahman guru, however, Parabrahman is known to manifest with all of his divine powers and brilliance. Through the lineage of these Akṣarabrahman gurus, Parabrahman continues to remain manifest on earth and liberate countless individual ātman.
Along with a detailed description of Parabrahman’s anvaya form, the above-mentioned texts also provide an exposition of Parabrahman’s vyatireka form. This vyatireka form is specified as Parabrahman’s divine, human-like form that resides within his supreme abode, Akṣaradhāman, and as the form that manifested on earth as Bhagavān Svāminārāyaṇa (Swaminarayan).
This work, thereafter, provides a comparative analysis of Swaminarayan’s understanding of Parabrahman’s anvaya and the vyatireka form with that of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta. It concludes that Swaminarayan’s understanding of Parabrahman’s anvaya and the vyatireka form greatly differs from that described by Viśiṣṭādvaita.