Courtesy: Sri.V.Subrahmanian
A quest led to a discovery
The following verse of the Garuda puranam https://sa.wikisource.org/s/8cv is a part of a discourse on Vedanta Sadhana. The second half means: 'Brahma aham asmi aham brahma jnanam ajnana-vardhanam' = Aham brahma knowledge/realization 'increases' ignorance.
उकारश्च अकारश्च मकारोयमृगद्वयः ।
ब्रह्माहमस्म्यहं ब्रह्मज्ञानमज्ञानवर्धनम् ॥ १,२३९.२४ ॥
Seeing this translation in an edition: 'The expressions Brahma aham asmi, aham brahma serve merely to create confusion' - I felt something is amiss here since the teaching preceding the verse is full of aham brahma asmi sadhana.
अहंब्रह्मास्मि वाक्योत्थज्ञानान्मोक्षो भवेन्नणाम् ॥ १,२३९.१ ॥
वाक्यज्ञानं भवेज्ज्ञानादहंब्रह्मपदार्थयोः ।
Upon making a search in the dictionary for the word 'vardh', I got to know that this also means ''cutting/dividing' apart from the common 'to increase...'
वर्धः [vardhḥ], १ Cutting, dividing.Increasing, causing increase or prosperity.
Thus, the vardhanam in the verse means 'naashanam.'
The pdf of the Garudapurana Advaita sadhana of some four pages, with translation and correction, is uploaded here:
No comments:
Post a Comment