[Advaita-l] Re: Vivekachudamani vs Bhashyas

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

<venkat_advaita at yahoo.com> wrote:

>may i draw your attention to the work
>
>Vedanta Prakriya Prathabigna ( Eng. trans:- Method of Vedanta by AJ Altson)
>
>wherein, the author has beautifully distinguished Dhyana Vs Upasana.
>
>the examples he has quoted for the former ( examination of a diamond ratna 
>by a ratna parikshaka etc) in my view is a clincher in this point.
>

When I compared upAsana and dhyAna, I had in mind the following statements 
of SankarAcArya -

1. upAsanaM nAma samAna-pratyaya-pravAha-karaNam - on sUtra 4.1.7 (AsInas 
saMbhavAt)
2. api ca dhyAyaty artha eva yat samAna-pratyaya-pravAha-karaNam - on sUtra 
4.1.8 (dhyAnAc ca)
3. taila-dhArAvat samAna-pratyaya-pravAheNa dIrgha-kAlaM yad AsanaM tad 
upAsanam - on gItA 12.3
4. taila-dhArAvat saMtata avicchinna-pratyayo dhyAnam - on gItA 13.24

As one can see, the process of upAsana and that of dhyAna are similar in 
that the uninterrupted flow of the same thought or of like thoughts for a 
long time is compared to the flow of oil (taila-dhArAvat). Moreover, 
quotations 1 and 2 show that in SankarAcArya's own interpretation, the two 
are very close. The mental discipline involved in both upAsana and dhyAna is 
very similar.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar

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