Bhedabheda vada doctrine of Bhaskara was upheld in contrast to Shankara`s view that only total resignation and withdrawal from acts are necessary to attain release. Bhaskara declared that a person should only withdraw after an active life in which he has fulfilled his obligations. His doctrine was, however, not accepted widely. This was because Shankara had expounded his own view which gained great influence. However his work is important as it documents the Brahmin concern with the implementation of the dharma.
According to Bhaskara the tenet that the world is in the end and the demand of renunciation of the world prevents the fulfilment.
Bhedabheda is an important branch of Vedanta. Bhaskara propounded his view in the ninth century. Bhaskara was either the younger contemporary of Shankara or lived agfter him. His work is a commentary on the Brahma Sutra. Bhaskara is in fact the earliest in a long line of Vedantic authors to disprove Advaita. Many of the arguments used against the Advaita originated with Bhaskara. He upheld the doctrine of "cumulative effects of acts and knowledge". He believed that Brahman is the cause of the world. The concept of May was not accepted by him at all. Brahman experiences the modifications by his power.
Brahman undergoes the modifications by his own power. Bhaskara assigned to God two self-modification powers. Bhaskara also differentiated in his theory of knowledge between self-consciousness that is forever present and objective knowledge that arises out of appropriate causal conditions. Bhaskara subscribed to the view that knowledge is intrinsically true. He regarded religious duties as binding in every stage of life. A theory known as jnana-karmasamuccaya-vada was upheld by him. This means performance of duties along with knowledge of Brahman that leads to liberation. Bhaskara was an advocate of Bhakti but for him it was dhyana that was directed toward the transcendent Brahman. He denied the possibility of liberation in physical existence.
Bhedaabheda vada says that the cosmos is differentiated while its source is unitary. Individuals are subjected to restricted awareness, workings of karma and rebirth that are emanations of the Supreme Being. According to Bhaskara, defects occurring in the embodied soul, differentiated and conditioned by limiting extras, do not really affect the Brahman. According to him world of differences and agency are products of beginning less, ignorance, then there are no grounds for thinking that monistic belief is true as it occurs in the sphere of Avidya.
