[Advaita-l] Purva Mimamsa Discussions - Vidwan Sri Mani Dravid Sastrinah

[Venkatraghavan S]

Thank you.

The talks were really meaningful with that in mind. If I understood Sri MDS
correctly, mImAmsakas hold that the mukhya visheShya, the central object of
a sentence, is the bhAvana, defined as AkhyAtArtha, or the verbal ending of
the sentence. In determining vAkyArtha or sentence meaning, the anvaya of
every element of the sentence is with that AkhyArtha. Such an approach - ie
everything having anvaya with bhAvana as the mukhya visheShya - is a more
parsimonious approach compared to nyAya which in contrast, requires seven
different anvayas (corresponding to liNg / its absence, naN and its absence)

In the case of liNg, the vidhi artha is the shAbdibhAvana - ie the
pravartana (the knowledge gained from the vidhi - veda is enjoining a
sacrifice to me). This leads to the anumAna (hence the sAcrifice must be an
iShTa sAdhana, leading to a desirable outcome for me). This leads to
pravritti (the ArthabhAvana) - let me perform the sacrifice.

In cases other than liNg too, the bhAvana, the central component of the
sentence, is the verb ending, and other words in the sentence take their
meaning in relation to the activity denoted by the verb.

Given that sentences, according to mImAmsa, have action (bhAvana) as their
central element, the prAmANya of veda according to that school is in
sentences enjoining a particular action or in prohibiting one. Sentences
that talk of the nature of Atma (as one with Brahman) have no prAmANya, as
no pravritti takes place from them - they are arthavAda, in mImAmsa's view.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan



On 25 Feb 2018 16:52, "Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan" <
rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> The key point to understand is that according to pUrva mImAmsA the entire
> Veda is for following dharma, as in performance of karma. Now, the first
> key type of statements are the liN forms derived from the dhAtus, or the
> optative, as they create a state of mind in the person hearing the Vedas as
> to what is to be performed. This characteristic of the liN is called
> bhAvana. It is a peculiar “force” that resides in the liN. The word itself
> is from the causative form of bhU, which gives a clue. Once this is
> understood every other statement which is not  urging an action needs to be
> interpreted the right way and that’s where mImAmsA starts. Advaitins do not
> necessarily disagree with the fact that the Veda talks about dharma, but
> say that Veda can also make statements on things as they actually are, when
> the other means of knowledge may produce errorneous knowledge, e.g., the
> true nature of the self.
>
> Ramakrishnan
>
> On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 2:14 AM Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> Thank you Subbuji. Can anyone please provide an explanation of the term
>> bhAvana in pUrvamImAmsa? Sri MDS refers to the term in his talk. It would
>> be helpful to understand what the term precisely corresponds to.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Venkatraghavan
>>
>>
>>