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they say, but only that they do not lead to the same result as the others; they need to be read differently and by different readers (or readers at different stages in their reading), for different purposes. |
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This version of the distinction between the two kinds of texts denies to the reader a higher viewpoint from which to survey all of the upanisadic texts at once, offering instead a more refined manner of engagement in the Text; a certain skill is prized, and the means to the acquisition of that skill is proposed. The reader is compelled to approach the upanisads in an active and nuanced fashion, by reading the many passages which describe Brahman with various qualities over against, and in tension with, those rarer texts which tell us that Brahman cannot be characterized at all. One does not merely leap to the passages which deny that Brahman can be qualified; one appropriates the whole of the texts and, as an active reader who learns over time, one begins to read differently after making use of the distinctions among them. Then, positioned correctly among texts which proclaim Brahman with qualities, the accomplished reader is enable to move to the assertion that Brahman is devoid of qualities: this is thus a truth discoverable only in those texts as they are situated within the Text, and a truth which guides one in rereading the Text, again and again.
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2. Paradoxes in the Text (mahavakyas) |
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A second way in which Advaita organizes the upanisads in order to make their truth evident is the designation of socalled great sayings (mahavakyas), a number of very brief upanisadic sayings which are said to sum up the entire meaning of the upanisadsin Advaita, the teaching of nonduality: most important are "I am Brahman," (aham brahmasmi; Brhadaranyaka Upanisad 1.4.10) and "You are that" (tat tvam asi; Chandogya Upanisad 6.8.7).14 |
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This identification of great sayings by Sankara15 and the later commentators16 is itself a constructive exegetical move, one neither required by nor in total harmony with the upanisads. Insofar as these great sayings are supposed to encapsulate the |
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