[Advaita-l] A quest led to a discovery

[V Subrahmanian]

The following verse of the Garuda puranam https://sa.wikisource.org/s/8cv
is a part of a discourse on Vedanta Sadhana.  The second half means:
'Brahma aham asmi aham brahma jnanam ajnana-vardhanam' = Aham brahma
knowledge/realization 'increases' ignorance.

उकारश्च अकारश्च मकारोयमृगद्वयः ।
ब्रह्माहमस्म्यहं ब्रह्मज्ञानमज्ञानवर्धनम् ॥ १,२३९.२४ ॥

Seeing this translation in an edition: 'The expressions Brahma aham asmi,
aham brahma serve merely to create confusion' - I felt something is amiss
here since the teaching preceding the verse is full of aham brahma asmi
sadhana.

अहंब्रह्मास्मि वाक्योत्थज्ञानान्मोक्षो भवेन्नणाम् ॥ १,२३९.१ ॥

वाक्यज्ञानं भवेज्ज्ञानादहंब्रह्मपदार्थयोः ।

Upon making a search in the dictionary for the word 'vardh', I got to know
that this also means ''cutting/dividing'  apart from the common 'to
increase...'

https://kosha.sanskrit.today/word/sa/vardha

वर्धः [vardhḥ], १ Cutting, dividing.

Increasing, causing increase or prosperity.

Thus, the vardhanam in the verse means 'naashanam.'

The pdf of the Garudapurana Advaita sadhana of some four pages, with
translation and correction, is uploaded here:

<goog_500133267>
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1swJXRSwwblGMM53CQNdUwuqqCn-CEb-Y

regards
subbu