Negation - is the ONLY method of teaching

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praNAms

Hare Krishna

 

There has been a discussion on the role of negation in vEdAnta...Since we

are not competent enough to understand on our own the role of negation...we

have to listen what our bhagavad pAda offers to us.  Why brahman can be

known only through the method of negation??  If negation is the ultimate

path for knowing brahman then why shruti teaching us *satyaM jnAnam anantaM

brahma?? (taitirIya upanishad)...To get answer to these questions, we have

to have our bhagavadpAda's upadEsha with us...According to

shankara/advaita/shruti, brahman which is nirvikAri, nirvishEsha ,

nirvayava, nAma rUpa upAdhi rahita.  Being devoid of any specific features

(nirguNa) and never objectifiable (apramEya)brahma tattva  has to be made

known only by the process of negation (nEti, nEti) of the superimposed

attributes which are obviously foreign to nirvishEsha paramArtha tattva.

BruhadAraNyaka explicitly teaches the concept of brahman by declaring not

such not such (nEti nEti) and concludes this is the ONLY possible

definition that can be given to unobjectifiable brahma

tattva...kEnOpanishad clears this stand by saying brahma tattva is

something which is certainly other than the *known* (vidita) and is higher

than the *unknown* (avidita)...this is the reason why shruti itself

expresses its inability to define it & it says yato vAcho nivartante

aprApya manasa saha (taitirIya upanishad)...We have to study our bhagavad

pAda's commentary on all these upanishad maNtra-s (ofcourse under the

proper guidance of  shrotrIya brahmanishTa guru) to understand the *role of

negation* in paramArtha siddhAnta nirNaya...In this context we can also

contemplate on the bhagavAn's words in gIta...while explaining *jnEya*

(known)..lord says that jnEya is anAdim paraM brahma that which is na

sattannAsaduchyatE (neither sat nor asat)....

 

just few of my thoughts based on bhagavadpAda's prasthAna trayi bhAshya.

 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!

bhaskar

 

 

 

Discussion of Shankara's Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of nonseparablity of Atman and Brahman.

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