Advaita and KevalAdvaita

[Guy Werlings]

Namaste !

I noticed  from the archives that the above topic was discussed within
the list. I do'nt think necessary to re-open the file as such, but
perhaps can I bring a French testimony on the subject.

During the longest part of my  unacademic Indian studies I had never met
with the term kevalAdvaita  until a few years ago I notice the word was
used by the famous and highly respected French Indologist Pr. Jean
Filliozat, and after him of course all his students. As a fact, it's
one of his students who taught me the until then unknown word and
concept.

I quote here-below two small extacts of articles in the French
Encyclopaedia universalis (in French, although English is the official
language of the list, as I know some members can French and shall
perhaps appreciate a small training exercise (as well as having some
fun). I somewhat altered the transliteration to adapt it to the net and
indicated my word for word translation only where absolutely needed
within parenthesis and my initials gw:

quote :
ADVAITA
2. Absolu et pratique selon Sankara
La forme absolue, n^Òadmettant aucune autre réalité que le Brahman , fait
par conséquent du monde une illusion, tel est le kevalAdvaita  de
Sankara. Le monde est un rêve bien lié, affirmation qui s^Òapparente à
certaines doctrines bouddhiques.
Sankara enseigne l^Òunicité de l^ÒÊtre isolé (kevala )(gw: the unicity of
the Isolated Being), c^Òest-à-dire existant seul(gw: i.e. existing
alone), à part du monde des représentations (gw: away from the world of
representations), éternel et infini, exempt de toute qualification
(nirguna) et exempt de toute particularité (nirvisesha), à la différence
de toutes choses dans l^Òunivers qui, elles, sont limitées par leurs
modalités spécifiques et n^Òont pas, enelles-mêmes, d^Òexistence propre.
Cet «Unique à part» (gw: This Standing away Unique) a cependant une
essence propre par laquelle il est devenu courant, dans l^Òécole, de le
définir comme étant le réel, l^Òesprit et la béatitude (saccidananda).


INDE - Les doctrines philosophiques et religieuses
Le KevalAdvaita de Sankara
Sa doctrine professe le kevAladvaita , l^Ò«unicité de l^ÒIsolé»(gw: the
unicity of the Isolated), c^Òest-à-dire du Brahman, existence pure,
dégagée de toutes qualification (guna) et spécification (visesha)
adventices, et qui se retrouve dans le soi-même (Atman ) enveloppé dans
les individualités empiriques.

© 1997 Encyclopædia Universalis France S.A.Tous droits de propriété
intellectuelle et industrielle réservés
unquote

Do not mean to be disrespectful, but can tell you "the unicity of the
Isolated" does not mean anything in French, neither for a layman nor for
a scholar.

I could quote to you tenths and tenths of such meaningless translations
of our French Indologists (they prefer to call themselves indianists)
mostly interested in philology and still unable to produce one single
readable and faithful translation, the worst ones being the translations
of the Upanishads.

Regards

Guy