[Advaita-l] Sanskrit and Advaitic Truth

[Sean Geiger]

Namaste
On Mon, Oct 1, 2018 Ryan Armstrong via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> I met Paul some time in the 90s when I visited England.
> I must add that much of his thinking would have been guided by Leon
> MacLaren and the work he did and which Paul was a part of.
> I do confess that not only have I not read his book, I did not know it
> existed!
>
Paul Douglas does mention Leon MacLaren in his book.

> "Sanskrit has all its words full of spiritual significance."
>
>
> *Of course historically Sanskrit has also been used for quite mundane
> even profane uses as well as spiritual ones.*
>
> I would just like to point out the while Jaldhar ji is correct in general,
> the statement "Sanskrit has all its words full of spiritual significance."
> was not made in a general manner.
> It was used by His Holiness when answering a question put by Mr. MacLaren
> as to why Sanskrita should be studied and why English is inadequate for
> conveying the fullness of the teaching of the Vedas.
> So it was used more in the sense of "Reflecting on the Upanishads allows
> penetration directly through the sound of the Sanskrita words"  rather than
> "Everything written in Sanskrit is spiritual".
>
> Regards
> Ryan
>
>
The opening statement of the Mandukya Upanishad asserts everything in the
world is Om. All words have Om as their basis. This is a parallel line of
thought to that of Brahman's being all things in the world. Bhartrhari
describes the first step in language as a flash of consciousness, "sphota".
Brahman apparently becomes an object in the world by a transformation
through Maya. This is called vivarta. An equivalent concept in Sanskrit is
one of a root, dhatu becoming a word, pada, by transformation through
pratyayas, loosely translated as affixes. The present participle of the
dhatu, as- to be, in the neuter gender is sat and when joined with the
suffix, ya in the sense "excellent for", becomes the word satyam, Truth.

I could notice another parallel in Sankaracharya's works- that of
Panchikarana, where creation from five elements is explained. Any theory
that describes how One apparently becomes many will also be similar to
these explanations. Sureshvara assures us any such explanation  is as good
as any other.

yayA yayA bhavetpuMso vyutpattih pratyagAtmani
sA sAiva prakriyA jneyA sAdhvI sA chAnavasthitA |

Regards,
Sean


> On Mon, 1 Oct 2018, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > On Sun, 30 Sep 2018, Sean Geiger via Advaita-l wrote:
> >
> > I have not read that particular book but the sentiments expressed below
> > are quite familiar.
> >
> > > "Sanskrit has all its words full of spiritual significance."
> >
> > Of course historically Sanskrit has also been used for quite mundane even
> > profane uses as well as spiritual ones.  However Advaitins believe any
> > concept if meditated upon far enough will eventually lead to the
> > cognisance of Brahman which underlies all.  Sanskrit being a "perfected"
> > (as opposed to Prakrit or "natural") language is especially well suited
> to
> > such meditation.  Ultimately though no words can capture Brahman in
> > totality so the greatest of jnanis abide in silence.
> >
> >
> > > "The truth was originally declared through the Sanskrit language, and
> it
> > > still holds the truth in its original form."
> >
> > The language of the Vedas is thought to be the primordial one so from the
> > beginning of recorded Indian civilization we have gone to great lengths
> to
> > maintain its integrity.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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>
> --
> Regards
>
> Ryan Armstrong
> +27 82 852 7787
> ryanarm at gmail.com
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