[Chaturamnaya] Upadesa-pancakam of Adi Sankaracharya - 7

[S Jayanarayanan]

 (Continued from previous post)
 
 
http://svbf.org/newsletters/year-2012/upadesa-pancakam-part-ii/
 
Upadesa Pancakam – Part II
 
उपदेश पञ्चकम्
Upadeśa pañcakam of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya – Part II
S. Yegnasubramanian
 
Having given the instructions for the brahmacarya and gṛhastāśrama, the author dwells upon the vānaprastāśrama and emphasizes
the jnānamārga and the various sādhanās, starting with systematic listening and understanding or śravaṇam.
वाक्यार्थश्च विचार्यतां श्रुतिशिरः पक्षः समाश्रीयतां
दुस्तर्कात्सुविरम्यतां श्रुतिमतस्तर्कोऽनुसन्धीयताम् ।
ब्रह्मास्मीति विभाव्यतामहरहर्गर्वः परित्यज्यतां
देहेऽहम्मतिरुज्झ्यतां बुधजनैर्वादः परित्यज्यताम् ॥ ३ ॥
 
In this śloka, Śaṅkarācārya briefly mentions about śravaṇam in the first line; mananam in the second; and nidhidhyāsana
in the third.
 
In the upaniṣads, the vedāntic concepts are not explicit. The meemāmsā śāstra provides the key to understand these intricate
concepts. For example, in the kaivalya upaniṣad, it is said,
एतस्माज्जायते प्राणो मनः सर्वेन्द्रियाणि च ।
खं वायुर्ज्योतिरापश्च पृथ्वी विश्वस्य धारिणी ॥ 1.15 ॥
i.e from brahman are born, all the pañca bhūtās, the jñānendriyās, karmendriyās and pañca-prāṇās.
But the upaniṣat strangely concludes that, ‘therefore they are not there’,  in the 4th Sloka of section 2
न भूमिरापो न च वह्निरस्ति
न चानिलो मेऽस्ति न चाम्बरं च ॥ 2.4 ॥
 
Similarly, the upaniṣat says,  satyam, jñānam , anantam brahma – Brahman is anantam – limitless, all pervading. And the
Upaniṣat says, that brahman created all the worlds; all the bodies, all the minds – all pervading – and then on brahman
entered in to them!
तत्सृष्ट्वा । तदेवानुप्रविशत् ।
All these will cause great confusion unless we take the approach of mīmāmsā.
 
When a statement is vague or confusion, to enable correct understanding, one first takes into account, all other statements
of the upaniṣat and try to connect them. So, the answer to the question is not to be found outside the upaniṣat,  but within
it only.
 
And this mīmāmsā method of analysis generally talks about six factors  or liṅgās –
उपक्रमादि षड्लिङ्गैः तात्पर्य निर्णयः मीमाम्सा अथवा श्रवणम्
This is called Śravaṇam or mīmāmsā. The author says,
वाक्यार्थश्च विचार्यताम् ।  vākyārthaśca vicāryatām — may you analyze the meaning of every statement  especially, mahāvākyārtha:  –
and when you analyze that,
श्रुतिशिरः पक्षः समाश्रीयताम् । śrutiśiraḥ pakṣaḥ samāśrīyatām — may you stick to the statements of the Upanishats only, Śrutiśiraḥ pakṣaḥ.
Śrutiśiraḥ  means Vedāntā – may you always be on the side of Vedāntā.
And through śravaṇam, we understand that the essence of jīvātmā is cit – i.e., Consciousness is the essence of the individual
and, the essence of the world is sat or Existence, and that the Consciousness and Existence are one and the same —
which alone is called sat-cit-ātmā or jīva-aiśvarya-aikyam — the one-ness of jīva and īśvarā.
Then mananam is introduced in the 2nd line. Mananam is logically refuting all other systems which are contrary to vedāntic
teaching. Because, any knowledge involves knowing the right and also the wrong. So, knowledge is knowledge, only if it cannot
be shaken by any wrong or fallacious understanding. Therefore, vedāntic study involves two stages –
1. Seeing vedāntic teaching as correct, and
2. Seeing other teachings as defective.
For example, if we accept advaita as ultimate then dvaita has to be negated, and vice-versa.
 
 
(To be Continued)
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </archives/chaturamnaya/attachments/20160211/7105cafc/attachment.html>