[Advaita-l] Interpreting "abhEda" shruti sentences

[Jay Nelamangala]

Dear VidyAshankar,

>
> >In general,  any identity statement is always sAvakAsha i.e, it lends
> >itself for different interpretations.
>
> Not the statement, "I am I".
>
Correct.
But that is a degenerated identity statement,  "bear is a bear",
"Brahman is Brahman",  "I am I"  etc etc do not need context
because those statements talk about identity of a thing with itself.

No one needs any "context of upanishat" to correctly  understand
 that "I am I"  and "Brahman is Brahman",  "Bear is a Bear",  "sky is sky"
"he is he",   etc

The issue of context crops up only if two different things are
said to be  one and the same.  "Jeeva is Brahman",  "He is a bear",
"I am the sky"  etc

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

Thanks for asking.

The context there is OmkAra.  It starts with
"sarvamOkAra Eva"  - "All is indeed Omkara"
But nowhere in prasthAna-traya it says "this jeeva is OmkAra".
So,  consistent with it, and consistent with Geetha,
 "sarvam hyEtad brahma" - "All is indeed Brahman"  must be interpreted too.
Geetha explicitly states,  "sarvam samApnOshi tatOsi sarvaha"
(God is all because He is in All).
Such a OmkAra-vAchya Brahman  is All,  means He is in all.

When we say God is 'in'  everything,  God is the "owner" of everything etc.
it is not mere residing that we are talking about,  but
it is controlling the thing by being inside it - which is expressed as
"AtmA",
"sarva-bhootAntarAtmA"  concept.
 "mayi sarvam idam prOtam sootrE maNi gaNaah iva"
AtmA also means "owner" for this reason.

Upanishat is saying "ayam AtmA Brahma"
ayam "such a",  AtmA (owner) is Brahman.

ayam - "Such a" - includes all the concepts described in this context.
It stands for
1) The one that is OmkAra-vAchya
2) The one that  is in all
3) The one that is the Controller of all

Such an AtmA is Brahman ( ayam AtmA brahma).

Note that none of the above three can be applied to a jeeva.
This jeeva is neither  OmkAra-vAchya,  nor this jeeva is in all,
nor this jeeva is the Controller of all.   So the interpretation that
"ayamAtmA brahma"  means "this jeeva itself is Brahman" is
totally out of context in that upanishat.

Among the several examples that I gave earlier,
"sarvam hyEtad brahma" - "all is indeed this Brahman"
is similar to identity statement
such as  "Microsoft is all indeed this BillGates",  which simply
means "BillGates keeps all control of Microsoft".


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vidyasankar Sundaresan" <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
To: <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 9:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Interpreting "abhEda" shruti sentences


>
> >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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