[Advaita-l] Explanation needed regarding the Mahavakya "aham Brahmasmi"

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 2:58 AM, Shashwata Shastri via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> To all the learned members of group-
>
> It has been a long time since I posted a question.
>
> Above mentioned statement reveals the highest truth of Vedas. My question
> is- the word "Brahma" which is contained in the sentence, is it a noun or
> an adjective?
>

In the Brahmasutra Bhashyam 1.1.1 Shankara decidedly says:

सर्वो लोकः ‘नाहमस्मि’ इति प्रतीयात् । आत्मा च ब्रह्म । यदि तर्हि लोके
ब्रह्म आत्मत्वेन प्रसिद्धमस्ति, ततो ज्ञातमेवेत्यजिज्ञास्यत्वं पुनरापन्नम् ;
न ; तद्विशेषं प्रति विप्रतिपत्तेः ।

He says: Atma is Brahman. If Brahman were familiar to all as the very
Atman, then since Brahman is already known, there would be no occasion to
know Brahman.

From the above statement it is clear that Shankara holds Brahman to be
verily Atman, not any adjective.  This is the sense in which the term
Brahman is used in the Mahavakya.

Also there is the bādhasāmānādhikaraṇyam that Shankara has alluded to in
many places, one being the vyāpteśca samanjasam 3.3.9 sutra bhashya:

अपवादोनाम — यत्र कस्मिंश्चिद्वस्तुनि पूर्वनिविष्टायां मिथ्याबुद्धौ
निश्चितायाम् , पश्चादुपजायमाना यथार्था बुद्धिः पूर्वनिविष्टाया मिथ्याबुद्धेः
 निवर्तिका भवति — यथा देहेन्द्रियसङ्घाते आत्मबुद्धिः, आत्मन्येव आत्मबुद्ध्या
 पश्चाद्भाविन्या ‘तत्त्वमसि’ (छा. उ. ६ । ८ । ७)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Chandogya?page=6&id=Ch_C06_S08_V07&hl=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF>
 इत्यनया यथार्थबुद्ध्या निवर्त्यते — यथावा दिग्भ्रान्तिबुद्धिः
दिग्याथात्म्यबुद्ध्या
निवर्त्यते

Here too Shankara is very clear: The idea of self was wrongly known to be
inhering in the body-mind complex. Now, on the application of Tattvamasi
mahavakya, it is realized that the self is none other than the self. What
was wrongly known to be the body-mind complex is realized now to be not the
body-mind but the pure consciousness.

Here too, there is no adjective-subtantive relation.



>
> Best Regards and Pranam,
>
> Shashwata Chowdhury
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