[Advaita-l] Defintion of anubhava

Praveen R. Bhat bhatpraveen at gmail.com
Tue Jul 4 13:05:16 EDT 2017


Namaste Sreenivasa Murthyji,
​
On Tue, Jul 4, 2017 at 9:46 PM, sreenivasa murthy <narayana145 at yahoo.co.in>
wrote:

>
> The following information/ quotations may help you to arrive at correct
> understanding of the word "*anuBava*" :
>

I have already mentioned that there are several places that Bhashyakara
uses the word anubhava, nowhere does he really define it, as far as I know.
My question has less to do with understanding what anubhava is than
defining it in contrast to the word jnAna itself.

(1) ayamAtmA brahma sarvAnuBUH || Bruhadaranyaka upanishad 2-5-19
>
You are mixing the word anubhava and anubhU. The first is the suffix अप्
from a भावे व्युत्पत्ति while the latter is क्विप् from a कर्तरि
व्युत्पत्ति। In any case, this mantra says that this AtmA is the subject of
everything, so its definition of Atma and not anubhU and most definitely
not anubhava.


> (2) tatra ajAdiSabdaiH janmAdayO BAvavikArA nivartitAH, asthUladi
> SabdaiSca  sthaulyAdayO dravyadharmAH, vij~JAnAdiSabdaiSca
> caitanyaprakASAtmakatvamuktam |
>  ESha vyAvRuttasarvasaMsAradharmakO anuBavAtmakO
> brahmasaMj~JnakastatpadArthO vEdAntABiyuktAnAm prasiddhaH ||
> [Sri Shankara's commentary to BrahmasUtra 4-1-2]
>

This is also a definition of brahmAtmA. The word anubhava here is
translated by Sw. Gambhiranandaji as consciousness. Yet, it has a give-away
similarity to the earlier quote of yours as well as Sriramji's link to
definition of anubhUti.
​

> (3) na dharmajijnAsAyAmiva SrtyAdaya Eva pramANaM brahmajijnAsayAm  kiM tu
> SrutyAdayAH anuBavAdayaSca yathAsaMBavam iha pramANam | anuBavAvasAnatvAt
> BUtavastuviShayatvAcca brahmajnAnasya ||
> [Sri Shankara's commentary to BrahmasUtra 1-1-2]
>

​This talks of importance of anubhAva *yathAsambhavam, (as
possible/applicable)* in the pursuit.

(4)  vijnAtEryastu vijnAtA
>             satvaM ityucyatE yataH |
>       sa evABavastasya
>             tatO^nyO^nuBavO mRuShA ||
>         [UpadESasAhasri; Chapter 12 Shloka 8]
>
> ​This says which anubhava is right and which is not which is what the
reference by Chandramouliji was also about. Sw. Ramatirtha says under this
shloka 12.8 that the anubhava in keeping with the Shruti and reasoning is
correct and any other is wrong/ false.
​T
he same can be said of jnAna too as to what is valid and what is invalid. ​
​​

​Thank you for your elaborate useful references, though not directly
answering my question.​

​gurupAdukAbhyAm
,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
That owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */


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