[Advaita-l] Fw: [advaitin] Unambiguous statement of Akhandakara vritti in the Gita Bhashyam

Raghav Kumar Dwivedula raghavkumar00 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 14 13:10:49 EST 2025
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Namaste Suresh ji
I think the following is already known to you. But for completeness....

Brahman is not the vAcyArtha (direct meaning) of even the word satyaM.

It is a word which is in apposition with jnAnam and anantaM and so it's
laxyArtha is taken.

In this case Brahman is not an object and so no word can directly denote
Brahman.

 *Any* word in any language can directly denote only something that has
jAti (species), guNa (quality), kriyA, visheSha (adjective),  (action) and
sambandha (connection).

Brahman is devoid of all of the above.

And yet Brahman is still taught by shabda pramANa.

So we have to necessarily bring the idea of lakShyate anena iti lakShaNa
viz., words which indicate/indirectly reveal/point to Brahman. (a common
mistranslation of laxaNa is "characteristic" or "feature".)

That is why Sri Shankara BhagavatpAda says, " न तु सत्यशब्दवाच्यं ब्रह्म ".
Even satyaM cannot directly denote Brahman.

The other word anantaM used in apposition with satyaM knocks off some of
the conventional assumptions implicit in the meaning of the word satyaM,
while not negating the word satyaM entirely, thus preserving certain
aspects of the word satyaM.

In Buddhism, they entirely negate the meaning of words like AtmA, nirvANa
etc leading to a kind of nihilism. So they go wrong.

So, while for Astikas, we highlight the fact that the word satyaM does not
directly denote Brahman. It's only a laxyArtha based word. ("Pointer" is
not a good translation.  "Revelation by negation of conventional meaning"
is better.....or why not just use the word laxyArtha vs. vAcyArtha. )

But for the wholesale negationists of Buddhism, *we do assert* that satyaM
is a "positive" (sAxAt vidhi mukha) connotation too, which helps us avoid
the pitfall of total negation.

Even the word "nEti" is used twice to give the laxyArtha as Brahman. The
second nEti is to say that Brahman is not utterly nonexistent. This Brahman
is also referred to (by laxyArtha) as satyaM.

So this dialectical process is there of negation of conventional meanings,
and at the same time, the word satyaM is not negated entirely; it is
retained too.

The word "pointer" may mean many things to many people - it can easily mean
the total negation of itself too - we turn our attention away from the
pointer totally ignoring it, to turn to what is pointed to. Here it is not
exactly like that. That very word satyaM acquires a special dimension by
the presence of anantaM and jnAnaM. It's not entirely discarded. The word
jnAnam negates jaDatvaM  and the word anantaM negates that satyaM is not
existence in time and space but it's the Invariant Timeless
Space-wise-unlimited Presence which is never displaced by any object.

 The word vAcyArtha vis a vis laxyArtha explanation by bhAShya is
unambiguous, so perhaps there is no point in using the word pointer to dumb
down the subtlety here. That's the main point.


Om
Raghav

P.S. I would venture that the taittirIya passage "satyaM jnAnam anantaM
Brahma" bhAShya is so incrediblly insightful and lucid, it's likely a
universal favorite.








On Fri, 14 Feb, 2025, 10:09 pm suresh srinivasamurthy via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Rammohan ji,
>
> As per my understanding in the Advaitic view, the satyatva / jnyAnatva /
> anantatva cannot be a pointer to anything other than Atman/Brahman. It is
> very much experiential too as Atman does not need any external pointer to
> prove its existence.
>
> If satyajnyAnAnandamaya Atman is a pointer to Brahman, then it results in
> Dvaita/V.Advaita (as Atman as a pratibimba / shareera is a pointer to the
> Bimba / AtmAntaryAmi paramAtma).
>
> So IMHO, the symbol and the symbolized are essentially one in the Advaitic
> view. This is also very much in the Shankara bhAshya for "ShAstrayOnitvAt"
> - where the AchArya teaches Brahman is the origin for shAstra itself (which
> is unique to Shankara bhAshya).
>
> It would be great if other scholars could correct me if what is stated
> above is incorrect.
>
> Regards,
> Suresh
> ________________________________
> From: advaitin at googlegroups.com <advaitin at googlegroups.com> on behalf of
> Rammohan Subramaniam <rammohan.subramaniam at gmail.com>
> Sent: Friday, February 14, 2025 3:18 AM
> To: advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [advaitin] Unambiguous statement of Akhandakara vritti in the
> Gita Bhashyam
>
> Hari Om
>
> What Akilesh ji has stated is the correct understanding regarding every
> swarupa Lakshna of Brahman being only a pointer to Brahman.  This is
> because Brahman cannot be described through attributes. Thanks for posting.
>
> On Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 11:51:46 PM UTC+5:30
> aki... at siftingtothetruth.com wrote:
> Yes. Ultimately all words with respect to brahman are pointers, because
> brahman is not an object, and cannot be said to have qualities, which are
> products of the dualistic mind. This is why sruti says Brahman is net, neti
> (and even that is but a pointer!).
>
> Akilesh Ayyar
>
>
>
> On Feb 13, 2025 at 4:09:09 AM, suresh srinivasamurthy <sure... at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> Namaste Akileshji,
>
> The description "yato va imani bhutani jayante...." could be a pointer.
> But are you saying - the words "satyam, jnyAnam, Anantam" are also pointers?
>
> Namaste,
> Suresh
> ________________________________
> From: adva... at googlegroups.com <adva... at googlegroups.com> on behalf of
> Akilesh Ayyar <aki... at siftingtothetruth.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2025 10:26 PM
> To: adva... at googlegroups.com <adva... at googlegroups.com>
> Cc: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> adva... at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Subject: Re: [advaitin] Unambiguous statement of Akhandakara vritti in the
> Gita Bhashyam
>
> These are pointers, not descriptions.
>
> Suresvaracharya gives the description of a pointing to the star at the end
> of a tree branch. The star is not literally there. Saying it’s at the end
> of the branch is a way to direct someone’s attention.
>
> Akilesh Ayyar
>
>
>
> On Feb 11, 2025 at 1:01:07 PM, suresh srinivasamurthy <sure... at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> Namaste Bhaskar-ji,
>
> <
> But shAstra’s scope ends with wiping off the distinctions superimposed on
> brahman by avidyA and shAstra does not teach the brahman as such and such a
> thing.  It is svayaM siddha, svayam prakAshita an Aprameya aparOksha tattva.
> >
>
> The words - svayaM siddha, svayam prakAshita an Aprameya aparOksha tattva
> - How are these not a description brahman as such and such thing?
> Appreciate if you could clarify this, please.
>
>
> Namaste,
> Suresh
> ________________________________
> From: adva... at googlegroups.com <adva... at googlegroups.com> on behalf of
> Venkatraghavan S <agni... at gmail.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2025 10:13 AM
> To: Advaitin <adva... at googlegroups.com>
> Cc: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> adva... at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Subject: Re: [advaitin] Unambiguous statement of Akhandakara vritti in the
> Gita Bhashyam
>
> Namaste Bhaskar ji,
>
> I'm glad we were able to find common ground.
>
> Kind regards,
> Venkatraghavan
>
> On Tue, 11 Feb 2025, 17:23 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin, <
> adva... at googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
> The purpose of the akhaNDAkAravRtti is not the revelation of Brahman - for
> Brahman is self-effulgent, rather it is the removal of avidyA, which
> obscures the true nature of the Atma as Brahman.
>
>
>
> praNAms Sri Venkatraghavan prabhuji
>
> Hare Krishna
>
>
>
> I agree with this.  brahmAvagati is not the result of AAV OTOH attaining
> brahman or realization of our svarUpa is just the removal of avidyA, apart
> from removal of avidyA there is no second obstruction that comes in our
> way…and shAstra too which is ultimate pramANa to realize brahman does not
> objectify the brahman to have the vrutti on THAT.  Ofcourse we all agree
> that brahman is NOT an object of any action and at the same time for the
> pedagogical purpose we say shAstra is the means of knowing IT.  But
> shAstra’s scope ends with wiping off the distinctions superimposed on
> brahman by avidyA and shAstra does not teach the brahman as such and such a
> thing.  It is svayaM siddha, svayam prakAshita an Aprameya aparOksha tattva.
>
>
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
>
> bhaskar
>
>
>
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