[Advaita-l] A 'new' analogy for bhrama
V Subrahmanian
v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Thu Jan 31 13:11:05 EST 2019
A 'new' analogy for bhrama
We are familiar with rope-snake, shell-silver, pillar-man/thief analogies
for the bhrama instance. In the Vishnu Puranam we have a not very popular
one:
विद्याबुद्धिरविद्यायामज्ञानात्तात जायते ।
बालोऽग्निं किं न खद्योतमसुरेश्वर मन्यते ॥ १,१९.४० ॥
One thinks that which is wrong to be right owing to ignorance. It is akin
to a child taking the fire-fly to be fire itself.
The above verse occurs in a dialogue spoken by Prahlada to his father
Hiranyakashipu.
Another example of this genre is in the Panchadashi of Swami Vidyaranya -
7.258:
Seeing a bush of red gunja berries from a distance one may suppose that
there is a fire, but such as imaginary fire does not affect the bush. So
the worldly duties and qualities attributed to me by others do not affect
me. (gunjaa = manjADi in Tamil, guraganji in Kannada)
गुञ्जापुञ्जादि दह्येत नान्यारोपितवह्निना । नान्यारोपितसंसारधर्मानेवमहं
भजे ॥ २५८॥
Om Tat Sat
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