Notes on BSB I-i-4-1A

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Notes on BSB I-i-4-1A

 

sadaashiva samaarambhaa.n sha~Nkaraachaarya madhyamam.h |

asmadaachaarya paryantaa.n vande guruparamparaam.h ||

 

I prostrate to the lineage of teachers starting from Lord Shiva who

is ever auspicious and with Bhagavaan Shankara in the middle and all

the way up to my own teacher.

 

vaatsalya ruupa.n triguNairatiitaM

aananda saandram amalairnidhaanam.h .|

shrii chinmayaananda guro praNiitaM

sadaa bhaje.aha.n tava paada pa~Nkajam.h ||

 

Who is the very embodiment of motherly affection who is beyond the

three guNa-s, who is full with bliss, and who is the very source of

purity who is the best among the teachers, Shree Chinmayaananda, to

his lotus feet I (sadaa) always prostrate.

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samanvaya adhyaaya - I

spashhTa brahma li~Nga vaakya samanvaya paada- i

samanvaya adhikaraNam.h .

suutra 1: tat tu samanvayaat.h .

 

The fourth adhikaraNam also has one suutram. This adhikaraNam is

called samanvaya adhikaraNam based on the suutra tat tu

samanvayaat.h . First the general analysis, then the word analysis

and then the conclusion.

 

General Analysis - This suutra is the key or important suutra based

on which the entire first chapter containing 134 suutra -s is

developed. This being the fourth suutra , one can consider the rest

of the 130 suutra -s that follow are only an elaboration of this

suutra alone. Based on this suutra only, the first chapter is named

as samanvaya adhyaayaH . The second suutra - janmaad yasya yataH is

the foundation suutra on which the entire Brahmasutra is based. The

entire first chapter is based on this fourth suutra. Thus we find

among the first four suutra -s two very important suutra -s. Thus

according to a tradition if a person cannot study the entire

Brahmasutra, at least one should study the first four suutra -s. The

first four suutra -s put together is known as chatuH-suutrii . There

are many books just dealing with these four suutra -s or

chatuH-suutrii alone. In the third suutra Vyasacharya has mentioned -

shaastra yonitvaat - and we saw two meanings for this - shaastra

kaaraNatvaat and shaastra vishhayatvaat. Of these two, we will be

taking now the second meaning for further development. shaastra

vishhayatvaat means Brahman is the central theme of Vedanta shaastram

..

 

Now the question is how one can say that Brahman is the central theme

of Vedanta shaastram ? When many topics are discussed in a

shaastram how can one arrive at the central theme or topic among all

the topics that are discussed. Sometimes the central theme is very

evident but often it is not. For example, in Bhagavat Gita, various

topics, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, j~naana yoga are discussed.

Krishna in fact emphasizes while discussing each one as if that

particular yoga is the most important among all others. If so, what

is the central theme of Bhagavat Gita? Normally a shaastra should

have only one central theme and the rest of the topics become

subservient to that theme. If there are more than one theme, then it

is considered as a defect according to miimaa.nsaka -s, and the

defect is called ' vaakya bheda doshhaH '. There is a big

controversy regarding Gita as to what is the central theme - karma

or bhakti or j~naana. Several scholars consider karma is the

central theme while bhakti and j~naanam are subservient (in contrast

to Bhagavatam where bhakti is the central theme). Shree Ramanuja

emphasizes Bhakti as the central theme while karma and j~naanam are

subservient, and Shree Shankara emphasizes j~naanam while the other

two are subservient to j~naanam. If one includes impartially all

the yoga-s, then one can say that yoga shaastra or brahmavidyaa is

the central theme of the Giita. The question that remains is how

does one determine which is the central theme of a given shaastra ?

If author is available or has written a commentary on his own work

then the question can be easily answered. Veda-s being

apaurushheyam the author is not readily available to answer. In all

these cases our acharya-s have pointed that there is one method by

which a central theme can be arrived at. The central theme is the

one that fulfils

one important condition and that is called ' samanvayaH '. It is a

technical term, which will be analyzed in detail when we come to the

word analysis. SamanvayaH means taatparya vishhayatvam or nearest

translation to the word is consistency or a compromised meaning is

'importance'. Next question that arises is how does one know which

theme enjoys the importance. The answer is it is that which fulfills

six factors of proofs called ' shhaD li~Ngaani '. Vyasa says Brahman

is the central theme since it fulfills the six factors of proof. The

general meaning of this suutra is Brahman is the central theme of

Vedanta shaastram because it enjoys the importance ( samanvaya ).

 

This idea can be presented as anumaana vaakyam - brahma vedaanta

shaastra vishhayaH, samanvayaat , dharmavat . Brahman is the

central theme of the upanishads since it enjoys the samanvaya just

as dharma in the puurvamiimaa.nsaa.

 

The vishhaya vaakyam (the upanishhaD vaakya on which this suutra is

based on) for this suutra consists of the entire upanishhaD mantra

-s since we are talking about importance of the entire vedaanta

shaastram. This concludes the general analysis of the suutra.

 

Now the word analysis.

 

There are three words - tat tu samanvayaat . We have to supply the

fourth word for the completion of the statement and that fourth word

is shaaastrayoni . The complete suutra reads tat tu shaastrayoni

samanvayaat. The meaning is that the Brahman is the subject matter

of Vedanta because it has importance. tat means that - a pronoun

that stands for a noun. Since no other noun is specified here it

refers to whatever noun that was discussed in the three previous

suutra -s is the noun that is being referred to here. That noun is

Brahman since discussion of the three previous suutra-s are centered

on this noun only. In the first suutra Brahman is discussed as an

object of inquiry, in the second suutra discussion was centered on

Brahma lakshaNam that is jagat kaaraNam , and in the third suutra

also we discussed Brahman as shaastra kartaa and hence sarvaj~nam

and sarvashakti. The word tat indicates that Brahman. Hence the

meaning of tat is vichaaryam, jagat kaaraNam , veda kartR^i ,

sarvaj~nam , sarvashakti brahma shaastra vishhayaH. We have to bring

the two words shaastra vishhayaH from the previous suutra - this is

called anuvR^itti . A simple example of anuvR^itti is - Rama went to

temple; Krishna also. Krishna also gives the complete meaning since

we borrow from the previous sentence the words 'went to temple'. In

suutra literature this anuvR^itti is used extensively to shorten the

words. This completes the meaning of the word ' tat '.

 

The next word is ' tu ' - which for convenience we will explain this

word later, although we are supposed to explain the words in the

order present.

 

The third word is samanvayaat , because Brahman enjoys the

importance or consistency. How does one prove Brahman enjoys

importance in the shaastra ? It can be proved only if the six

factors or shhaD li~Ngaani , are supporting Brahman alone. Hence

Vyasacharya has to show now using the six factors that Brahman is the

central theme. This method of proving the importance or samanvya by

making use of six factors or shhaD li~Ngaani is called miimaa.nsa or

analysis. shhaD li~NgaiH taatparya nirNayaH miimaa.nsaa.

Vyasacharya is going to do that from the fifth suutra onwards. From

suutra 5 up to suutra 134 Vyasacharya will be proving samanvaya .

Since at the rate the notes are being posted and studied it will take

many months before we complete this section on samanvaya (we started

this series six months ago and we are still at suutra 4), Shankara

and the subcommentators briefly provide the proof here itself while

commenting the suutra 4. Following Shankara bhaashhya , we will also

therefore do the brief analysis.

 

This we will take up from the next post.

 

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[ananthandbala]

Harihi Om, Sadanandji,

I am at present hearing BSB of Swami Paramarthanandaji. I find going thru your notes are helpful in revising. Can you please tell me how to access your notes folder? I would be much obliged.

 

Harihi Om!

 

Ananthandbala