jIva, jagat and brahman

[Guest guest]

Namaste to all.                                

The famous half-verse of shrI shankara says: brahman is real, the world

is mithyA: the jIva is brahman itself.

Of these, the statement that jIva is brahman itself is established by

the mahAvAkya ‘tat tvam asi’. In this statement the words tat and tvam are in

the same grammatical case and so they are said to be in sAmAnAdhikaraNyam

(samAna=same, adhikaraNam=grammatical case). In other words, the two words are

in apposition. The sentence ‘tat tvam asi’ thus shows the identity of tat and

tvam. But tat and tvam are not two separate entities. What the sentence means

is that there is only tat (brahman), and what appears as tvam (jIva) has no

separate existence, but is brahman itself. This is similar to the statement

“The snake is a rope”. Here the very existence of a snake is denied and it is

said that there is only a rope. Similarly, the very existence of separate jivas

is denied and it is said that there is only brahman. This kind of

sAmAnAdhikaraNyam is known as ‘bAdhAyAm sAmAnAdhikaraNyam’.

 

The other statement that the world is mithyA is established by inference

in the form ‘The world is mithyA because of its being an object of knowledge,

inert and limited, like nacre-silver’. (vimatam mithyA dRishyatvAt, jaDatvAt,

paricchinnatvAt). This inference is supported by the shruti statements, “There

is no diversity whatsoever here” (br. Up. 4.4.19), and “One only, without a

second” (cha. 6.2.1).

The world and brahman are also in sAmAnAdhikaraNyam in the shruti

statement “All this is brahman” (cha. up. 3.14.1). Here also the meaning is

that all this that is experienced has no reality and there is only brahman.

This is also a case of bAdhAyAm sAmAnAdhikaraNyam.

The statement that brahman is real is established by the taitt. up.

statement ‘satyam j~nAnam anantam brahma’.

praNAms,

S.N.Sastri