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"-maya" would have lost its meaning: in 1., "Brahman" would lose its primary meaning, and in 2. "-maya'' would shift from one meaning ("consisting of") to another ("abundant in") after the fourth sheath. But in all three cases "puccha" would lose its primary meaning, "tail," since no one claims that Brahman is an actual tail; so 3. is best since two of the three primary meanings are maintained and minimal reinterpretation occurs. Hence, by economy of interpretationwithout the direct introduction of philosophical claims about what Brahman ought to beVacaspati can conclude that Brahman is figuratively referred to as the "puccha," "base," while the "sheath consisting of bliss" indicates a lower, finite reality, not Brahman. |
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Calculations such as these are abundant in the Text. They are often difficult to follow, they raise further questions, and frequently they are more difficult to follow than the passages they intend to clarify. Since the conclusion will inevitably be a reaffirmation of the siddhanta identified by Sankara, the commentators and their readers have invested in the further inquiry in order to bring Sankara's text to fruition, to show its rich complexity more clearly, and so to amplify its glorywhich, as we have already seen in Chapter 1, is their announced goal. Appropriation of the argumentation in careful reading is the goal, not the mere conclusion. To know Advaita is to be able to read it properly, to become able to sort out a complex set of arguments and counter-arguments, to be able to reassess that entire set against the backdrop of other, new setsand then to see and be differently, transformed by mastery of a portion of the Text. The determination of the right meaning of the Taittiriya text is a matter of skill and judgment; for the decision as to right meaning depends on how one reads the text, what one takes for clues, how one assesses these, and how one brings to bear on that reading one's other clues, drawn from other sources, including general conceptions such as how one thinks Brahman is connected with the worldcontinuously, as in a series of sheaths, or discontinuously, as the basis for such sheaths. |
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This extended consideration of a single example sketches major features of the functions and uses of adhikarana in Advaita, and of the nature of Advaita argument. Merely passive or merely |
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