[Advaita-l] Gradations in establishment in brahmavidyA

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2007-January/018743.html

In the context of the current discussion, please see the above post (Yoga 
and Advaita Vedanta -10). muNDakopanishat 3.1.4 has a reference to 
"brahmavidAM varishThaH". I have briefly highlighted what Sankara 
bhagavatpAda says about this in the corresponding bhAshya.

As also pointed out in posting 9 on that series, the word varishTha presumes 
vara - varIyas - varishTha, i.e. a gradation in excellence. In the Sanskrit 
language, applying the suffixes -Iyas and -ishTha to a root has the same 
intent as suffixing -tara and -tama, to denote comparative and superlative 
degrees. Various examples are given in

http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2006-December/018698.html.

Incidentally, the word tAratamya is itself derived from -tara and -tama.

Best regards,
Vidyasankar

_________________________________________________________________
Play Flexicon: the crossword game that feeds your brain. PLAY now for FREE.  
  http://zone.msn.com/en/flexicon/default.htm?icid=flexicon_hmtagline