Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tt00415)

Dallas TenBroeck  wrote:


>What is the source of the quote from Shakaracharya ?
>
>I would say that the problem lies with the translator.  Shakaracharya would
>know quite well that the PARAMATMAM is the source for ATMAN, and when
>Manvantara occurs the power of the Karmic skandhas causes the return into
>manifestation and life of all those intelligent beings which made up
>evolution in an earlier Manvantara.
>

>>
>>    All this universe, being other than the SELF, is unreal; for,
>>    the SELF alone is all inclusive, constitutes the ultimate goal
>>    and is self-established and self-dependent.
>>    There is neither absoluteness nor non-absoluteness, neither
>>    non-entity nor entity; for It is absolutely non-dual in Its nature.
>>
>>                                       Sankaracharya
>>
Dear Dallas,

Sorry for the delay, somehow I have not seen your letter written two
weeks ago till now. The quote is from Sankaracharya's "Ten-versed Hymn"
verse 9 and 10, translated by Venkataramanan and published in Madras.
There is Sanskrit text in juxtaposition with English translation.
I think that "SELF" in that verse refers to Brahma which is sometimes
used in identical sense with Atman.

I don't see anything wrong with the translation. Sankaracharya
observed in his commentary on Brahmasutras that "Parabrahma is Puruhsa,
as there is no other adhistatha (active agent), and Parabrahma is Prakriti
there being no other upadanam." At the end of Maha-Manvantara that SELF
is not destroyed but exists in highest state of non-being.

Visanu