[Advaita-l] On anubhava

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Dear Srikantan,

The answer is given in the paragraph "What Exactly is Anubhava"?

Anubhava consists of various experiences, some of which may come under
pratyaxa, and some not. What I mean is, for example, the state of
deep-sleep does not come under pratyaxa, as is usually defined [1],
the mind is quiescent and there is nothing to be perceived. That there
was a deep-sleep state is known only by pratyabij~naa, as the
DaxiNAmUrti stotra eloquently explains. How this experience should be
understood depends on what the purpose is. In the context of
brahma-jij~naasa, the anubhavas along with their analysis clearly show
what is *unreal*. This is useful in reinforcing the reality as
expounded by shruti. Shankara and Sureshvara are crystal clear on this
(see my paper for quotes). This is unlike dharma-jij~naasa where
nothing else can be used to reinforce the method of doing the rituals,
The method is obtained straight and only through tools such as direct
assertion, syntactical connection, etc. Please see 3.4 for details.

[1] pratyaxa is used to mean shruti in the brahma-suutras, and
Shankara uses it in some rather unusual ways in a few places. We
should keep in mind that terminology can vary and understand from the
context.

Rama

On 5/2/07, srikanta at nie.ac.in <srikanta at nie.ac.in> wrote:
> In his paper Sri Rama Balasubramanian writes that "Anubhava" is one of the
> exegetical technique for Brahmagnana.I would like to know What is
> Anubhava?Is it the same as empirical experience?What should be the quality
> of the mind to this "anubhava"?Can "anubhava" which is limited in ordinary
> parlance experience the unlimited?
>                                              N.Srikantan.