[Advaita-l] Two more Akhandakara vritti explicit passages in the Tai.Up. Bhashya

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste

In the Taittiriya Brahmananda valli, mantra 1, while explaining the Brahman
residing in the cave of the intellect, buddhi guhaa, Shankara says: The
Upanishad specifies that region so that one apprehends/realizes Brahman
distinctly  in the buddhi vRtti

तस्मिन्हार्दे व्योम्नि या बुद्धिर्गुहा, तस्यां निहितं ब्रह्म *तद्वृत्त्या
विविक्ततयोपलभ्यत* इति ।

 Here the word vRtti, qualified by buddhi, as the means/vehicle through
which one realizes Brahman.  Evidently this vRtti has for its content
Brahman.
Sureshwaracharya endorses Shankara's view:  Brahman is apprehended by the
Buddhi vRtti that is free of tamas and rajas. The kaTha/Brihadaranyaka too
say: through the mind alone it is to be known/grasped. Evidently mind =
mind vRtti.

तमोरजोविनिर्मुक्ततद्वृत्त्या चोपलभ्यते ।
ब्रह्मातो निहितं बुद्धौ मनसैवेति च श्रुतिः ॥ १०८ ॥

The explicit statement that through the buddhi vRtti, in the instrumental
case, tRteeyaa vibhakti, clinches the Bhashya in favour of the need for the
vRtti.

Juxtaposed with the B.G.B 2.21 statement, *एवमेव आत्मानात्मविवेकज्ञानेन
बुद्धिवृत्त्या विद्यया ** असत्यरूपयैव *we have the common feature of the
AkhaNDAkAra vRtti:

1. It has to be a vRtti - both in the Tai.Up. Bh. and the BGB

2. The adjective buddhi is present in both the passages, in the
instrumental case.

The extra feature of the AVV, as admitted by 'post-Shankara' Advaitins is:
This vRtti is unreal, asatya, that is, it is not pAramArthika satya.
Shankara uses the term asatya, also in the instrumental case to qualify
that vRtti. They even call it 'brahmavidyA'. Shankara says this buddhivRtti
is vidyA.

Thus, all the features of the AV admitted by the post-Shankara people are
present explicitly in the Bhashya.  The two terms: vRtti and asatya clinch
the bhashya in favour of the need for the vRtti.

The Taittiriya Bhashya has another statement:

तैत्तिरीयोपनिषद्भाष्यम्षष्ठोऽनुवाकःमन्त्र १ - भाष्यम्

………उपलब्धिहेतुः, संनिकर्षात् , अवभासात्मकत्वाच्च अन्तःकरणस्य । यथा च
आलोकविशिष्टघटाद्युपलब्धिः, एवं बुद्धिप्रत्ययालोकविशिष्टात्मोपलब्धिः स्यात्
, तस्मात् उपलब्धिहेतौ गुहायां निहितमिति प्रकृतमेव ।

Here, instead of the wrod buddhi vRtti, the word buddhi pratyaya is used.
This also means the same as vRtti. Here Shankara says: just as pot, etc.
are apprehended when they are illumined by light, so too Brahman is
apprehended when it is illumined by the light that is thebuddhi pratyaya
(vRtti).  Thus it is the vRtti that apprehends/cognizes the Atman/Brahman.

Like a rich mine, Shankara's Bhashya resource has no dearth of statements
that decidedly mention the vRtti. There is no knowing without a vRtti as
knowing is the function of the intellect. The intellect is nothing but
vRtti.
Om Tat Sat