Advaitavedantic Atma Adhyasa of Anatma: A Discussion/ অদ্বৈতবেদান্তসম্মত আত্মায় অনাত্মার অধ্যাস : একটি আলোচনা

Abstract

Vēdānta Darśana is a Vedic philosophical sect amog Indian theistic philosophies. The author of this philosophy is Maharsại Bādarāẏaṅa. He formulated the historical Brahmasūtras by five hundred fifty five sūtras. Because the Brahmasūtras are very short, there are differences of opinion among different sages about the meaning, significance and importance of the sūtras. As a result, different sages formulated different commentaries. Ācārya Śaṅkara is worth mentioning among these sages. He named his commentary on the Brahmasūtras as Śāri̅rakabhāṣya. The entire Vēdānta philosophy is based on his Brahmasūtra bhāṣya. Ācārya Śaṅkara’s commentary is solemn and obvious. He wrote an introduction before the commentary, which he called Adhyāsabhāṣya. According to Ācārya Śaṅkara , every person knows himself as ‘I’ but dose not know the true nature of ‘I’. People sometimes say my body, my senses, my mind, my intellect. Says again — I am blind, I am lame, I am sad, I am happy, I am angry. Blind or lame is part of his body. Then he should say my body is blind or lame. Again his mind is sad or happy, but says — I am sad, I am happy. Even the common man has no fixed base of knowledge. Even though man has a little sense of difference, he dose not have the true nature of ‘I’ . So who is ‘I’? Judging by this, it can be seen that the knowledge of ‘I’ sometimes revealed by resorting to the body, and sometimes by resorting to consciousness.  Self is ‘consciousness’ and body is ‘matter’. Self being consciousness, it is revealer and the body is revealed. ‘I’ or the self is the seer, the body is the scene. The revealer and the revealed, the seer and the scene must be distinct. So when there is self-knowledge in the body, it is illusion. The Advaita Vedānta name for this illusion is Adhyāsa. Because of ignorance, we combine truth and falsehood — ‘This is me’, ‘This is mine’ and use such normal expressions. At the root of it is Adhyāsa.