kUTastha

[Guest guest]

Namaste all.

 

Dr. Padmanabhan Sharma wants to know about kUTastha. The best way is

to open the advaitin home page and make an advanced search for the

single word 'kUTastha'. You will get more than 50 messages pertaining

to kUTastha. You can choose!

 

Alternatively, if you want a connected account from scratch, one

possible reference could be the web-page on 'Who is the Doer-

Experiencer' in the site www.geocities.com/profvk/

 

The same should also be available on Dennis's website. But I am not

able to locate it there!

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

[Guest guest]

Dear Profvk-ji,

I do not have this at my website but will happily add it to the

list and serialize it over a 2 – 3 week period. if this is ok.

Best wishes,

Dennis

 

 

 

 

advaitin [advaitin ] On Behalf Of advaitins

Sunday, March 01, 2009 4:09 AM

advaitin

kUTastha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatively, if you want a connected account

from scratch, one

possible reference could be the web-page on 'Who is the Doer-

Experiencer' in the site www.geocities.com/profvk/

 

The same should also be available on Dennis's website. But I am not

able to locate it there!

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk.

[Guest guest]

Namaste Prof. VK-ji and other members,

 

Here are some references on kuuTastha.

 

Adi Shankara interprets the three occurances of the word as the following:

In 6.8, as 'who is unmoved' or immutable and in 12.3 and 15.16 as the

deceiver.

 

<QUOTE>

The word kuta (deceptive) is well known in the world in such phrases as,

'kuta-rupam, deceptive in appearance,' 'kuta-saksyam, false evidence', etc.

Thus, kuta is that which, as ignorance etc., is the seed of many births,

full of evil within, referred to by such words as maya, the

undifferentiated, etc., and well known from such texts as, 'One should know

Maya to be Nature, but the Lord of Maya to be the supreme God' (Sv. 4.10),

</QUOTE>

 

In 15.16, He interprets it in a similar way:

 

<QUOTE>

Or, kuta is maya, deception, falsehood, crookedness, which are synonymous;

that which exists in the diverse forms of maya etc. is the kutasthah.

</QUOTE>

 

==

This word appears in two places in the vivekacuDAmaNi. Here are the verses,

their translations and commentary. These are from vivekacuDAmaNi with an

English translation of the Sanskrit Commentary of Sri Chandrasekhara Bharati

of Sringeri.

 

First occurance is verse 191 (verse numbers may differ in other versions

of the book):

 

<QUOTE>

 

yo.ayaM viGYaanamayaH praaNeshhu hR^idi sphuratyayaM jyotiH .

kuuTasthaH sannaatmaa kartaa bhoktaa bhavatyupaadhisthaH .. 191..

 

This aatmaa which is compacted of viGYaana which is self-effulgent and

shines in the heart of near the praaNas, being immutable, becomes a doer and

enjoyer in the midst of the upaadhis.

 

praaNeshhu hR^idi sphuratyayaM jyotiH: praaNeshhu does not mean 'in the

praaNas. It is 'saamiipya saptami', like the paaSaaNe vR^ikshaH: tree in a

stone, i.e., tree near a stone. praaNeshu means near the eye etc. As the

reference of 'I' is attached to many things, in the context of King Janaka's

question to Sage yaGYavalkya: 'Which of these is the aatma?' and the answer

to it. 'praaNa stands for the indriyas and the vital airs and the aatman is

not said to be any of these which are near it.' Similarly, the buddhi too is

near the praaNa etc. But there is a difference which is referred to by the

expression: hR^idi sphurat svyayam jyotiH. Buddhi is what evelops the

caitanya jyotis which snines in the lotus of the heart, which, while not

capable of being illumined by anything else, itself illumines everything.

This viGYaanamaya caitanya is never found to exist in the jiiva apart from

the buddhi since from the beginning till the moment of release it is known

as viGYaanamaya. Or, by the rule that 'mayat' also indicates one's own self

it may be spoken of as the form of viGYaana (viGYaanasvaruupa).

 

Such an aatmaa is said to be kuuTastha, i.e., it stands for ever like an

anvil without undergoing any modification. It is without change. Yet,

getting identified with buddhi with its function of knowing and action, it

becomes tainted by avidyaa, and becomes an actor and an experiencer, even as

due to delusion, a crystal appears red by contact with a red color.

 

kuuTasthassan: api is to be added as kuuTasthassanapi: though it is

kuuTastha.

 

</QUOTE>

 

Note the emphasis of the word 'api' by the aacharya! The following is the

second occurance.

 

<QUOTE>

 

raveryathaa karmaNi saakshibhaavo

vanheryathaa daahaniyaamakatvam.h .

rajjoryathaa.a.aropitavastusaN^gaH

tathaiva kuuTasthachidaatmano me .. 506..

 

As the Sun is a mere witness of an action, as the fire makes for the burning

quality of iron, as the rope is associated with the object super-imposed on

it, so too, is what pertains to me who am the cidaatman in my inmost being.

 

Known as the karmasaakshi (the witness of all actions), jagaccakshuH (the

eye of the witness), the sun is the witness of actions of all creatures. But

it is not connected with any of these actions. So too I am the witness of

all actions being the inmost unchanging cidaatman. As the burning character

of fire is imagined in the iron when it is said that the (heated) iron

burns, the agency for action which pertains to buddhi is attributed to me.

So too, as the serpent imagined in the stick, or the waterline or the cleft

in the ground, the connections with body etc., are imagined in me, the

unchanging cit. In fact, being unattached applies in all three

illustrations.

 

</QUOTE>

 

The above second instance is when the shishya is describing his experience

to his Guru. The three examples used in the above verse are different levels

of contact of the 'original' with the 'superimposed'!

 

==

Also, in a previous post, I had referred to Prof. Ranade referring to the

occurances of kuuTastha. Here is the precise extract from his book.

 

From chapter titled 'Characteristics of an Equanimous Man (sthitapraGYa)'

 

<QUOTE>

....

Now the question before us is: what is the highest moral ideal realizable by

man, according to the Bhagavad Gita? The answer to this question is found in

its famous doctrine of sthitapraGYa. In the history of the Greek and Indian

philosophy, we find that the sage of the Stoics is characterized by apathia,

the sage of epicureans by ataraxia, and the sage of the Bhagavad Gita by the

anasakti. These are all at the same level. These sages point to an ideal

which we all have to realize by our own effort and our own fortune if

possible. The Bhagavad Gita goes to the length of calling the sthitapraGYa a

kuuTastha himself. (kutastho vijitendriyah 6.8). Now what is the meaning of

the word kuuTastha? It is a very peculiar and important word. My own

Vedantic teacher used to explain the word kuuTastha as meaning unmoving like

the iron anvil (kuutavat tishthatiiti). In that sense it occurs in Vedanta

Paribhasha; but kuuTastha also means the soul and the very peculiarly also

God in the head as Kabira has put it.

 

dasave dware taali laagi, alakha puruukha, jaako dhyaan dharo -- Paramartha

Sopana, Part I.5.16

 

The top most part of the brain is a very famous meaning of the word kuuTa.

It is the summit or the Pinnacle. Now when the Bhagavad Gita speaks about

this sthitapraGYa or kuuTastha, it implies automatically that he is the

individual soul, the soul in the head, or the soul above the head, or the

soul all-governing. Many people have known from the Bhagavad Gita what are

the various characteristics of such a sthitapraGYa. We shall not cite all

the instances from the Bhagavad Gita relating to the characteristics of a

sthitapraGYa, but refer to only a few of them from which we shall gather

together the chief characteristics and describe under the four heads:

psychological, ethical, social and mystical.

....

 

</QUOTE>

 

==

 

We should also note the word appears in chapter 8 of the pancadasi, where we

get a precise definition, which also (obviously!) works with our reading of

Vedanta Paribhasha. Here is the definition from the summary of that chapter

by Shri Sastri-ji.

 

<QUOTE>

The consciousness that witnesses the interval between two successive vrittis

as well as the period during which vrittis are absent is called kuuTastha.

This is immutable.

</QUOTE>

 

The above is taken from

http://www.celextel.org/summaryofvedantabooks/summaryofpanchadasi.html?page=3

 

==

Learned members can kindly point out any other references and correct me.

praNAms to all advaitins,

Ramakrishna