|
|
|
|
|
|
|
does not supersede the earlier, but what comes after grows out of what comes before. To skip over commentaries in order to read older texts on their own is not to strip away the encrustment of the centuries; rather, it is to examine a gem in a totally dark room, to appreciate a tree by cutting away everything but its roots. The proper way to understand Sankara is to read him as (a distinct) part of a long, rich tradition. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In his comments on Amalananda's introductory verses, Appaya Diksita articulates, with his characteristic precision and thoroughness, the often merely implied interconnection among the cosmological, epistemological and textual orders of reality. He appreciates and explores fully the rich images Amalananda places before him, and seeks just the right nuance by which to understand them; for he knows that these words are the path to knowledge of Brahman. Let us note, for example, how he elaborates skillfully the rich meanings latent in Amalananda's verses 1 and 2. He specifies the nature of the inquiry announced there, correlating it to hearing (sravana),reflecting (manana) and meditating (nididhyasana),the well-known sequence of steps in Advaitic learning:
26 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Just as daily the moon rises and, by rays which appear its own and are delimited throughout the various places in the sky, banishes the obscuration of the sky and makes the ocean rise, so too, he drives away ignorance of the meanings of various statements in the mind by means of those reflections of consciousness which take the form of the mind's parts, delimited according to the modes of mind and created by acts of hearing (sravana)multiple Vedic statements; he makes arise that wisdom which is in the form of meditation (nididhyasana)by that one-pointedness of mind which is reflection (manana),skillfulness in argument and refutation: it is he who always rises, he who is accompanied by Uma who is well-known for giving knowledge of Brahmanas it is said in the Kena Upanisad 3.1227 "Let us come to the woman in the sky, Uma, Haimavati, abundantly shining." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The many words of the Vedic texts cooperate to lead the meditator to knowledge of that Brahman which is always beyond words. Just as the refracted light of the moon illuminates the |
|
|
|
|
|