[Advaita-l] Śruti Basis for the Threefold Division of Reality

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste
The सत्यं चानृतं च सत्यमभवत् mantra of the taittirIya upanIShad is the
pramANa for the classification of reality in paramArthika, vyAvahArika and
prAtivhAsika. Shankaracharya's bhAShya on the same is illuminating.

BhAShya:
सत्यं च व्यवहारविषयम् , अधिकारात् ; न परमार्थसत्यम् ; एकमेव हि परमार्थसत्यं
ब्रह्म । इह पुनः व्यवहारविषयमापेक्षिकं सत्यम् , मृगतृष्णिकाद्यनृतापेक्षया
उदकादि सत्यमुच्यते । अनृतं च तद्विपरीतम् । किं पुनः ? एतत्सर्वमभवत् , सत्यं
परमार्थसत्यम् ; किं पुनस्तत् ? ब्रह्म, ‘सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म’ इति
प्रकृतत्वात् । यस्मात् , सत्त्यदादिकं मूर्तामूर्तधर्मजातं यत्किञ्चेदं
सर्वमविशिष्टं विकारजातमेकमेव सच्छब्दवाच्यं ब्रह्माभवत् ,
तद्व्यतिरेकेणाभावान्नामरूपविकारस्य, तस्मात् तत् ब्रह्म सत्यमित्याचक्षते
ब्रह्मविदः ।


Kind regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Tue, 21 Oct 2025, 23:57 Chyavana Joglekar via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear members,
>
> Many non-Advaitin schools often allege that the Advaitin division of
> reality into pāramārthika, vyāvahārika, and prātibhāsika levels has no
> explicit basis in the śruti.
>
> I would like to ask the learned members of this list:
> Are there any śruti-s/interpretive passages that can be cited as the
> scriptural basis (or at least suggestive antecedents) for this threefold
> distinction?
>
> I would be grateful for Any textual references, commentarial discussions,
> or relevant interpretive notes.
>
> Warm regards,
> Chyavana Joglekar
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