[Advaita-l] neha nAnAsti kiMchana

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- Jay Nelamangala <jay at r-c-i.com> wrote:

> What is the context of nEha nAnAsti kimchana?.  Do
> you know?
> 

BR^ihadaaraNyaka upanishhad (BU) 4.4.19 and kaTha
upanishhad (KU) 2.1.11. I see you're using the KU. 

> The previous one says,
> 

You mean two verses prior. You've quoted KU 2.1.9:

> "tam dEvaaha sarvE arpitAstadu nAtyEti kaschana"
> 
> what does "arpita" mean?  -  it means "fastened to",
> "one which has
> its roots in"
> 

OK. 

[..]

> AchArya Madhwa correctly interprets this,  "Neha
> nAnAsti kimchana"
> as  in such a God in whom "sarvE devAha arpitAha"
> has no svagata-bhEda.
> 
> There is no bhEda between one paramAtma-roopa and
> another,
> There is no bhEda between one guNa and other guNa of
> parabrahman.
> There is no bhEda between His guNa, kriya, jnAna,
> bala, kriyA, ichchA etc
> which is again very very consistent with other
> upanishats.
> 

That interpretation leads to the nonsensical equation
of guNa = kriya = GYAna = etc. 

Here's how Shankara correctly interprets this verse:

iha - here, in Brahman, nAnA - diversity, kiMchana -
even so little, na asti - does not exist. 
"In Brahman, there are no distinctions *whatsoever*."

Since Brahman in advaita vedAnta is the Supreme
Reality, it means there are no distinctions in
Reality. 

The latter part of the same verse KU 2.1.11 speaks of
one who sees distinctions:

mR^ityoH sa mR^ityum gachchhati ya iha nAneva pashyati
.

He who sees diversity here (in Brahman, in Reality),
goes from death to death (i.e. is only reborn again
and again). 

-Kartik

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