Sutra is a short fragmentary phrase in the form of an aphorism in the literature of Ancient India . Later, the sutras were collected in special collections - arches.
The language of these statements is characterized by imagery, truth, wisdom. Often the sutras were presented in the form of parables having a deep character.
Aphorisms about the meaning of life of a philosophical and religious orientation were summarized in the arches of sutras. And also about different branches of knowledge.
The sutras in Brahmanism are based on the Vedas (Old Indian knowledge) and represent a guide from God of a practical nature on cult and behavior in life, intended for people.
Description
Translated from Sanskrit or the ancient language, the notion of “sutra” means “thread”. Speaking in figurative language, sutras are knowledge that is strung on a thread.
Their depth, sequence of presentation and subject matter have their own logic; in general, sutras are indeed a kind of legends about the meaning of life.
Due to the fact that in ancient India many main knowledge was passed on by word of mouth, these codes of rules (especially in Brahmanism!) Were characterized by brevity and sufficient simplicity of presentation - for ease of memorization.
Buddhism and Brahmanism
One of the three world religions is Buddhism. As a rule, the people of the countries of the East and Southeast Asia profess it most of all. But representatives of European countries also join in this religion.
The founder is Buddha, which means "enlightened, awakened" (the name at the birth of Siddhartha Gautama).
The main gods in Brahmanism are: the creator of Brahma, the representative of the natural forces, the god Shiva, and the creator of goodness - Vishna.
The main ideas of Brahmanism and Buddhism are:
- Karma (retribution for actions, cause-effect phenomena in life, conditionality of a person’s birth in one place or another).
- Sansara (worldly life, the cycle of lives and deaths).
- Moksha (liberation from desires, nirvana).
This is what is described in the sutras. These are mainly dialogs or conversations between the Buddha and the disciples. The circumstances under which they were spoken are also described.
Their scrolls are often used in Indian teaching as an attribute denoting divinity.
Types of Sutras
In total there are about one hundred collections of aphorisms. Each has its own chapters, sections, parts.
For example, the first sutras, called the Kalpa Sutras, tell about the rules of rituals and are an integral part of other Vedic texts - the Vedanta Sutras.
There are also Ashtadhyai sutras (which means “8 lessons”), which have become a model for creating philosophical sutras. They describe the order and sequence of application of the ancient Indian language - Sanskrit.
In general, each spiritual school in Ancient India relied on its own sutras (except some), which were the basis for the study of a specific philosophical and religious teaching, as well as supplemented by new commentaries.
Some of the collections:
- Brahma Sutras (or Vedanta Sutras);
- “Shiva-sutras about yoga”;
- Sutra “Jug with Gold”;
- "Yoga Sutras of Patanjali";
- “Prajna-paramita sutra” or “Diamond sutra” (about transcendent Wisdom);
- “Prajna-paramita hriday sutra” (about the heart) and others.
Vedanta or Brahma Sutras
These are the sutras in brahmanism about this teaching. The Vedantists (students of Brahmanism) sought to encode the text in order to isolate themselves from other schools and be unique.
In the Brahma Sutras there are about 555 sutras — these are 4 sections, each of which is divided into 2 chapters and has its own theme.
The language of the text is very figurative and really resembles parables. The main character is Brahman (god).
In the first section, “a search for the subject of Brahman is what this birth and other conditions of this world came from”. Then comes the characteristic of the “subject” of Vedanta, the definition of the source of knowledge, priority, the program of work with it.
The second section includes polemical conversations. The answers to the objections to the doctrine (by yogis, atheists and other opponents) are described.
The causes of samsara (worldly life, the alternation of the birth and death of the soul of one person) are placed in the third section of the sutras.
A summary of the discussion is presented in the last, fourth, section.
In general, the Vedanta-sutras is a teaching that has become central to the leader of the Advaita Vedanta school, Shankara. The time of his life is the 7th-8th centuries of our era.
Also for other similar theological schools (VIII-IX centuries), these collections of aphorisms became the fundamental sources of knowledge about the meaning of life, about God.
Prajna Paramitic Sutras
Especially famous and revered in many eastern countries were the Prajna-Paramitic Sutras.
The main ideas of these texts are as follows:
- A person, like her emotions, has no essence. And the idea of a self-existing personality is the cause of error and the basis of worldly existence.
- All people are Buddhas who are in Nirvana initially, and worldly life is an illusion. For the enlightened one there is no separate "I", "personality", "soul".
- Buddha is the same as true reality. It can not be recognized only by the physical shell.
- Everything that can be described is not reality, since it cannot be put into words.
- True reality is comprehended intuitively, which is prajna-paramita.
These sutras help a person studying them to achieve a certain state. But true reality is inexpressible in words.