[Advaita-l] The word 'sthAnam' in the KaTha bhashya and the Bh.Gi.Bhashya

[V Subrahmanian]

In the KaThopanishad bhashya, for the expression   तद्विष्णोः परमं पदम्
tad vishnoH paramam padam occurring in the mantra 1.3.9-

विज्ञानसारथिर्यस्तु मनःप्रग्रहवान्नरः ।
सोऽध्वनः पारमाप्नोति* तद्विष्णोः परमं पदम् *॥ ९ ॥

in the commentary Shankara says:

तत् विष्णोः व्यापनशीलस्य ब्रह्मणः परमात्मनो वासुदेवाख्यस्य *परमं प्रकृष्टं
पदं **स्थानम्* , सतत्त्वमित्येतत् , यत् असावाप्नोति विद्वान् ॥

It is the exalted position (sthAnam) of Vishnu that is attained.

In this commentary there is a possibility of someone outside the Advaita
tradition taking the word sthAnam of the bhashya to mean a place such as
Vaikuntha.

The Gita bhashya instance of the term sthAnam in the verse itself and the
commentary for that as 'sthAnam which is called moksha, liberation' sets at
rest the above possibility of the term meaning a place.


यत्साङ्‍ख्यैः प्राप्यते *स्थानं* तद्योगैरपि गम्यते ।
एकं साङ्‍ख्यं च योगं च यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥ ५ ॥

यत् साङ्ख्यैः ज्ञाननिष्ठैः संन्यासिभिः प्राप्यते* स्थानं मोक्षाख्यम्* , तत्
योगैरपि ज्ञानप्राप्त्युपायत्वेन ईश्वरे समर्प्य कर्माणि आत्मनः फलम्
अनभिसन्धाय अनुतिष्ठन्ति ये ते योगाः योगिनः तैरपि
परमार्थज्ञानसंन्यासप्राप्तिद्वारेण गम्यते इत्यभिप्रायः ।

The Gita itself says: the destination of liberation that is attained by the
Jnana yogins is indeed attained by the karma yogins too. Surely there is no
way the word sthAnam can mean a loka even the Gita context.  The bhashyam,
however, gives the meaning moksha to the word sthAnam of the Gita verse.

That Shankara himself has clarified the term ' तद्विष्णोः परमं पदम्  tad
vishnoH paramam padam ' means Brahman.  This can be seen to be the case in
many instances he has used this expression across his bhashyas.  Here is an
article on this:

https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/tadvishnoh-paramam-padam-as-per-shankara.pdf


Many Sanskrit - English dictionaries too give the meaning: 2. state,
condition among many for the term sthAnam.

Om Tat Sat