[Advaita-l] Chatusutri

Subramanya Hiriyannaiah subramanyauh at gmail.com
Tue Apr 19 05:18:30 CDT 2011


Dear Readers,
Sri Sri Sachidandendra Saraswati Swamigal of adhyatma Karyalaya of
Holenarasipur has written a book called " SUGAMA', which is an explanation
for the Adhyasa Bhashya of Shankara, It was published in 1955 when Swamiji
was 75 years old. This book is about 120 pages , explanation for just 3
pages  of original Adhyasa Bhashya. This book can be down loaded from the
web site *www.adhyatmaprakasha.org*  freely available in *djuview* format
and the book is in Sanskrit. The language is terse and needs tution.

Sri K G Subbaraya Sharma is giving lectures on this book daily at Bangalore
for past 18 months and we have reached the end of this book almost.

Those who are interested can down load or buy the book too from Bangalore
office (just Rs. 20/-).



On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 3:26 PM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 1:03 PM, Ramakrishna Upadrasta <
> uramakrishna at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 2011/4/19 Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>:
> > > [Changing the topic to something more suitable.]
> > >
> > > On Mon, 18 Apr 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:
> > >
> > >> It is also interesting to note that for Brahmasutra,
> > >> there is also a short treatise by Sankara called "chatusutri" which
> > >> is a short commentary on 4 Sutras of BS.
> > >>
> > >
> > > Chatusutri refers to the first four brahmasutras  and Shankaracharyas
> > > bhashya on them is referred to as adhyAsabhAShya.  It may be studied
> >
> > Isn't adhyAsabhAShya just the bhashhya of introducton to brahmasUtra-s?
> >
> > namaste
> > Ramakrishna
> >
>
> Yes. The  very name 'adhyAsabhAShya' is  of a later origin.  The
> 'introduction' by Shankara to His own BrahmasUtra bhAShya is called
> 'upodghAtaH' which name too Shankara has not given.  This portion starting
> with the sentence 'yuShmadasmat....' and ending with the sentence
> 'yathAchaayamarthaH....pradarshayiShyAmaH' is what is popularly termed '
> 'adhyAsabhAShya'.  The actual bhAShya for the first four sutra-s along with
> this 'adhyAsabhAShya' may be collectively called the 'chatussUtrI'.  In any
> case the study of the bhashya for the first four sutras is not without
> studying the upodghAtaH.  Commentators like for example the author of the
> RathnaprabhA have written elaborately on the adyAsabhAShya, especially the
> very opening sentences, and shown how the very first sUtra 'atha ataH
> brahmajijnAsA' itself lends to the incidence, sambhAvanA, of adhyAsa and
> thereby shown the 'adhyAsabhAShya's need and relevance to the first sUtra.
>
> This is the last sentence of the upodghAta ('adhyAsabhAShya') :
> यथाचायमर्थः सर्वेषां वेदान्तानां तथा वयमस्यां शारीरकमीमांसायां
> प्रदर्शयिष्यामः ।
> Here Shankara declares that all the Upanishads have this avowed purpose of
> eradicating the samsaara-causing ignorance, adhyAsa, root-and-branch by
> bestowing the knowledge of the One Atman.  The word 'prahANAya' suggests
> this removal of adhyAsa along with its cause.  This last is the opinion
> expressed by Vidwan Dr.Mani Dravid ShastrigaL recently at the Holenarasipur
> Meet.
>
> After so saying, Shankara commences the sUtrabhAShya proper with the
> following sentence where the connection between the upodghAta and the next
> sentence is clear: the words शारीरकमीमांसायां and वेदान्तमीमांसाशास्त्रस्य
> being very prominent.
>
> The bhashya for the first sUtra commences with this sentence of Shankara,
> introducing the sUtra:
>
> वेदान्तमीमांसाशास्त्रस्य व्याचिख्यासितस्य इदं आदिमं सूत्रम् -
>
> Of course one might argue that Shankara did not make any distinction
> between
> the upodghAtaH and the sUtra bhashya proper; He would have written one full
> length essay.  Yet the available edited material we have today makes a
> distinction on the above lines.  Shankara has indeed written such
> 'upodghAtaH' for the Kathopanishad, for instance.  Here He has chiefly
> deliberated on the etymological meaning of the word 'upaniShat' and stated
> the anubandha-chatuShTaya (adhikaari, viShaya...).  Even here,  He ends
> this
> short essay with the words: .......एता वल्ल्यो भवन्ति इत्यतः ता
> यथाप्रतिभानं
> व्याचक्ष्महे । [....to the best of our capacity we shall
> elucidate/explain.]  One can notice the* first person plural *expression
> प्रदर्शयिष्यामः  in the Brahmasutra instance and the  व्याचक्ष्महे in the
> Kathopanishat instance.  This kind of usage just before taking up the main
> original work for commenting must have prompted the traditional editors to
> think that there is a portion which could be designated the 'upodghAtaH'
> and
> differentiate it from the main body of the bhAShya.  However, bhAShya
> pAThaH
> covers all these portions without distinction.
>
> Regards,
> subrahmanian.v
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-- 
Warm regards

*U H Subramanya
**सुब्रह्मण्यः यु हेच्
ಸುಬ್ರಹ್ಮಣ್ಯ ಯು ಹೆಚ್*

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