[Advaita-l] Shankara says hunger and thirst are 'bhavarupa' - Aitareya Bhashya

[V Subrahmanian]

In the Aitareya bhashya the mantra presents a situation where hunger and
thirst appeal to Iswara for a proper space for them. Ishwara in reply gives
them a space in sentient devata-s. In the Bhashya Shankaracharya says that
since hunger and thirst are attributes, dharmas,  bhavarupa-s, they can
reside only in a dharmi that can have hunger/thirst. Shankara calls this
dharma, that is, attribute.

Mantra 1.2.5:

तमशनायापिपासे अब्रूतामावाभ्यामभिप्रजानीहीति । ते अब्रवीदेतास्वेव वां
देवतास्वाभजाम्येतासु भागिन्यौ करोमीति ।


Bhashya:

स ईश्वर एवमुक्तः ते अशनायापिपासे अब्रवीत् । न हि
*युवयोर्भावरूपत्वाच्चे*तनावद्वस्त्वनाश्रित्य
अन्नात्तृत्वं सम्भवति ।

Shankara has used the expression bhavarupa in two more places:

बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यम्प्रथमोऽध्यायःद्वितीयं ब्राह्मणम्मन्त्र १ - भाष्यम्

………। न च घटाभावः सन्पटः अभावात्मकः ; किं तर्हि ? भावरूप एव ।

The absence of pot is there in cloth. So does cloth become abhavaatmaka?
Shankara says no; the cloth that is not a pot, that is, which has the
absence of pot in it, is not non-existence but it is an existent entity
bhavarupa.


तैत्तिरीयोपनिषद्भाष्यम्प्रथमोऽनुवाकः:

मोक्षस्य भावरूपत्वात् ।

Here Shankara says moksha is not non-existent but it is an existent entity,
bhaavarupa.

Thus we have Shankara using that expression 'bhava rupa' for moksha on the
one extreme and hunger and thirst which are anatma, on the other extreme.

Hence the use of this expression 'bhaava rupa' for avidya/ajnana by post
Shankara acharyas is quite in tune with the trend set by Shankaracharya
himself in the prasthana traya bhashya.  Surely the bhaava rupa cloth or
hunger/thirst do not end up claiming an ontological real place in Advaita.

Om Tat Sat