[Advaita-l] A wonderful string of adjectives for Brahman

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Wed Feb 15 05:05:33 EST 2017


A wonderful string of adjectives for Brahman

In the Mundaka bhashya 3.2.7 Shankara while stating the process of
realization the the Truth writes a beautiful sentence filled with 'rasa':

 त एते कर्माणि विज्ञानमयश्च आत्मा उपाध्यपनये सति *परे अव्यये अनन्तेऽक्षये
ब्रह्मणि आकाशकल्पेऽजेऽजरेऽमृतेऽभयेऽपूर्वेऽनपरेऽनन्तरेऽबाह्येऽद्वये शिवे
शान्ते *सर्वे एकीभवन्ति अविशेषतां गच्छन्ति एकत्वमापद्यन्ते जलाद्याधारापनय
इव सूर्यादिप्रतिबिम्बाः सूर्ये, घटाद्यपनय इवाकाशे घटाद्याकाशाः ॥



A total of 16 viśeṣaṇa-s for Brahman!!  No doubt they are all strewn across
various upaniṣadic texts. Yet to state them all in one place must be due to
a special inspiration that the Acharya had at that moment.

These are all svarupa lakṣaṇa words, mostly in the niṣedha mode and
sparsely vidhi mode.  Members can give more explanation on analyzing these
words.

I was drawn to this sentence while reading the nice Kannada book
'śānkarabhāṣyāmṛtam', a collection of 60 passages from the prasthānatraya
bhāṣya by Vidvan Sri K.G.Subraya Sharma. This book is in commemoration of
his sixty-day discourse during the Shankara Jayanti Celebrations 2016 at
Bangalore.

regards
subbu


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