[Advaita-l] Different prakriya-s in one place - Brahma sutra bhashyam 2.3.46

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Subbuji
Thank you for sharing that 2.3.46 Brahma sutra. As you said, there are
several prakriyas at one place.

One question here...


On Sun, 23 Aug, 2020, 7:08 PM V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Different prakriya-s in one place - Brahma sutra bhashyam 2.3.46
>
> In the Brahmasutra bhashya 2.3.46, Shankara mentions four distinct
> 'vaada-s' (prakriya-s) to drive home the point that the jiva is not really
> a samsarin.  The four prakriya-s, analogies, are pointed out by Sri
> Sringeri Kavi Narasimha Bhatta in his preface to his Kannada translation
> (1999) of the 'Panchapadika' of Sri Padmapadacharya.
>
> The author calls the four prakriyas 1. upaadhi-vaada, 2. avaccheda vaada
> and 3. pratibimba vaada. 4. Brahma bhaava vaada. The four are distinctly
> shown in the following bhashya passage thus:
>
> 1. यथा प्रकाशः सौरश्चान्द्रमसो वा वियद्व्याप्य अवतिष्ठमानः
> अङ्गुल्याद्युपाधिसम्बन्धात् तेषु ऋजुवक्रादिभावं प्रतिपद्यमानेषु
> तत्तद्भावमिव प्रतिपद्यमानोऽपि न परमार्थतस्तद्भावं प्रतिपद्यते,
> [Just as, when the light emitted by the sun or the moon pervades the entire
> firmament, upon one interfering with his vision by poking a finger at the
> eye, etc. the light appears to take on varied shapes even though no such
> variation really takes place in the light...]
>

Here, given the words अङ्गुल्याद्युपाधिसम्बन्धात् तेषु ऋजुवक्रादिभावं , can
we say that " the finger etc., are the upAdhis due to whose association,
light (through all pervading) nevertheless seems to appear in various
straight and bent shapes (due to reflection/scattering)."

 In other words, even without introducing the idea of poking a finger at
the eye to interfere with vision, it could be said that the all-pervading
light (वियद्व्याप्य अवतिष्ठमानः प्रकाशः ) seems to manifest (upon being
reflected off these upAdhis) as various shapes (of any object, the finger
being just any object - because it can be of various shapes when moved or
bent) etc. It appears that the Swami Gambhirananda translation keeps it
like that.

Om

Raghav


> 2. यथा च आकाशो घटादिषु गच्छत्सु गच्छन्निव विभाव्यमानोऽपि न परमार्थतो
> गच्छति,
> [just as ether appears to move when the pot, etc. are moved, yet in truth
> ether moves not...]
>
> 3. यथा च उदशरावादिकम्पनात्तद्गते सूर्यप्रतिबिम्बे कम्पमानेऽपि न
> तद्वान्सूर्यः कम्पते —
>
> [just as when the water pot, saucer, etc. is shaken, the sun's reflection
> in the water there appears to shake even as the sun does not shake...]
>
> एवमविद्याप्रत्युपस्थापिते बुद्ध्याद्युपहिते जीवाख्ये अंशे दुःखायमानेऽपि न
> तद्वानीश्वरो दुःखायते । जीवस्यापि दुःखप्राप्तिरविद्यानिमित्तैवेत्युक्तम् ।
>
> 4. Brahma bhaava vaada:
>
> तथा च अविद्यानिमित्तजीवभावव्युदासेन *ब्रह्मभावमेव *जीवस्य प्रतिपादयन्ति
> वेदान्ताः — ‘ तत्त्वमसि’ इत्येवमादयः । तस्मान्नास्ति जैवेन दुःखेन परमात्मनो
> दुःखित्वप्रसङ्गः ॥ ४६ ॥
>
>   ...as in the above analogies, even when the jiva, limited by the
> avidya-projected adjunct (upadhi) of the intellect, buddhi, experiences
> misery, Ishwara (Brahman, whose upadhi the buddhi is) does not undergo
> misery.. It has been said (in the foregoing, in the Brahma sutra bhashya)
> that even for the jiva, experience of misery is due to avidya. Therefore
> the Upanishads, by setting aside the avidya-caused jiva-bhaava, establish
> brahma-bhaava for the jiva through the passages such as 'tat tvam asi'.
> Thus there is no way Brahman is afflicted by the misery of the jiva.
>
> Note: The author chose to name as a separate vaada even the Brahma bhaava,
> perhaps because in the absolute sense, jiva is brahman alone and even the
> 'bhaava' suffix would be redundant then.
>
> Om Tat Sat
> subbu
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