[Advaita-l] BGBh and yoga - yama-niyama - II

[Naresh Cuntoor]

Hari Om,

> gives importance to yogic concepts. The gItA describes verbal tapas as
> speaking the truth, which is also pleasant, benificial (priyahita.m) and not
> offensive to hear (anudvegakara). Study and practice (svAdhyAya and
> abhyasana) are also included as verbal tapas. We have already seen in the
> earlier post that svAdhyAya was described as study of the Vedas, according
> to rule (yathAvidhi). Now, what is an example of speech that is true,
> pleasant, benificial and inoffensive? SankarAchArya gives an example -
> "SAnto bhava vatsa, svAdhyAya.m yoga.m ca anutiShTha, tathA te Sreyo
> bhaviShyati" - Child, be calm, study and practice yoga, thereby you will
> benefit."

So gItA 17.15 describes verbal tapas as having all 3 attributes:
satyam, pryahitam and anudvegakaram. Even if one of these three
elements are missing, it can't be considered verbal tapas. Could any
of the listmembers elaborate on this? In particular, it seems that
resolving the characteristics of 'good speech' is at the core of many
of a dilemma. Take yudhiShThira's aShvatthAmo hataH kunjaraH for
instance.

There are two parties involved in any act of communication - the
speaker and the audience. There may be one satya common to both
parties - think of us as being entitled to our set of opinions, but
not our set of facts. But when we say priyahitam and anudvegakara, is
it referring to the state of the speaker or the audience? Something
that is udvegakara to the audience may, in fact, be anudvegakara to
the speaker, no?

-- 
Naresh P. Cuntoor
http://www.cfar.umd.edu/~cuntoor