[Advaita-l] Interpreting "abhEda" shruti sentences

Vidyasankar Sundaresan svidyasankar at hotmail.com
Mon Jun 9 20:29:05 CDT 2003


>In general,  any identity statement is always sAvakAsha i.e, it lends
>itself for different interpretations.

Not the statement, "I am I".

>Hence, interpreting sentences which talk of identity beg for definition of
>context before interpreting them.

Pray, define the context for the statement, "sarvaM hyetad brahma ayamAtmA 
brahma" in mANDUkyopanishat.

Pray, also set out your parameters for how you define context. Is context 
defined internally to the text in which an identity statement occurs, or is 
it defined by an AcArya of your tradition? If the latter, how do you ensure 
that the parameters are acceptable to all concerned. For example, if you 
design parameters for identity statements in such a way that identity is to 
be explained away, it is not acceptable to us. And if we design parameters 
that would imply that identity is indeed meant at a fundamental level, that 
is not acceptable to you.

I only ask this because of the penchant from your side for making statements 
like "All schools must accept ..." etc.

Vidyasankar

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