BG

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

I need a small clarification regarding the following verse of BG.

 

ananyAschintayanto mAM ye janaaH paryupAsate

teshhAM nityAbhiyuktAnAM yogakshemaM vahAmyaham 9.22

 

Does 'ananya' mean the same as 'anyOnya'?

 

Regards,

Krishna

[Guest guest]

Dear shrI Kadiri:

 

The word " ananya " means " non-different " . It is made up of

actually two elements. " anya " meaning " different " and the

negation-prefix " an " meaning " no " , " non " , " not " . Sanskrit and

English both being Indo-European languages, the phonetic rule is

that the prefix " a " before a word beginning with any vowel

would get augmented by " n " .

 

Examples:

ENGLISH

a book

an elephant

 

(tho' in English the " a " is not only a the indefinate article

but a negation prefix as well)

atheism = a+theism (no God theory)

 

 

SANSKRIT

akhan.Da (partless) = a+khan.Da (no parts)

aneka (several) = an+eka (not one)

 

Sanskrit has no articles (definate or indefinate)

 

 

The word " anyonya " means " parapara " or mutual.

So " ananya " and " anonya " are different words with different

meanings.

 

Regards,

Hari-VAyu smaran.a

BN Hebbar

[Guest guest]

Sorry. The word should read " paraspara " not " parapara "

 

Thanks.

BN Hebbar

[Guest guest]

Dear shrI Kadiri:

 

ShrI Ramachandra Rao has given you the correct meaning of

" ananya " as understood by us MAdhvas as against the Advaitic

interpretation. I was simply pointing out how the etymological,

grammatical and the phonetic understanding of " ananya " and its

difference from " anyonya " .

 

Further, MM.Pt. Bannanje Govindacharya has interpreted " ananya " in

this context as being the subordination of our will to God's

will so that they become " non-different " . This is still

theistic and quite different from the Advaitic interpretation.

 

Regards,

Hari-VAyu smaran.a

BN Hebbar

[Guest guest]

The word " ananya " means " no other " or " no one else " .

The negation-prefix in it is actually " naN~ " meaning " no " , " non " ,

" not " . The words formed from this prefix belong to a category " naN~ "

tatpurushha samAsas.

 

" N~ " always gets dropped unless it is quoted like " naN~pratyayena " .

If the succeeding word starts with consonant the letter " n " also gets

dropped like in " apAra " , " amUlya " , " anAtha " , " amala " .

If the succeeding word starts with a vowel, the letters " na " get

reversed as " an " like in " ananta " , analpa " , " anishhTa " , " ananya " .

 

Now " ananya " can be applied in three different ways. (subject, thought

or object) as follows.

 

subject ==> thought ===> object.

 

1. " ananyAschintayanto mAM ye janaaH paryupAsate "

 

" janAH' is the subject. Lord Krishna is the object (He is saying " mAM " )

" chinta " is the thought.

 

" na vidyate anyaschintyatvena yeshhAm te ananyAH

anyadachintayantomAM chintayanto ye janAH "

 

which in simpler way is

 

" chintyatvena yeshhAm (mAM vina) anyaH na vidyate te ananyAH

anyat achintayantaH mAM (eva) chintayantaH ye janAH "

 

meaning

 

" Those people in whom no thought other than me exists or those

who do not think of any other and think of only me are 'ananyA' " .

 

Here " ananya " is applied to the subject (janAH).

 

2. " ananya bhAva " or " ananya bhakti " or " ananya chinta " .

The thought or devotion implying " no one else " or " no one other than " .

 

Here it is applied to the thought.

 

3. " ananya devaH " , or " ananyo hariH " .

(surrendering to) no one else but " Hari " .

 

Here it is applied to the object.

 

 

Now about " anyonya " . It does not have the negation prefix " naN~ " at all.

 

Though it means " paraspara " or " mutual " , there is a subtle difference.

 

" anyonya " is used when talking about closeness, clinging, dependency etc.

but not qualities like " vaishamya " or " viruddhatva "

 

For ex. " paraspara viruddha " can not be said as " anyonya viruddha " .

 

On the other hand, paraspara is more universal. " anyonya prema " can

also be said as " paraspara prema " .

 

Regards,

Keshava Rao