adhyAropa apavAda in Br. Up. Bhashya 4.4.25

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

We all know the famous saying about adhyAropa-apavAda being the methodology of teaching brahman as quoted by Adi Shankara above in BG Bhashya.

तथा हि सम्प्रदायविदां वचनम् — ‘अध्यारोपापवादाभ्यां निष्प्रपञ्चं प्रपञ्च्यते’  इति ।  भ. गी. भा १३.१३    

tathā hi sampradāyavidāṃ vacanam — ‘adhyāropāpavādābhyāṃ niṣprapañcaṃ prapañcyate' iti । bha. Gī. bhā 13.13

BhashyakAra also explains the adhyAropa-apavAda using two analogies in the Brihadarnayaka Upanishad bhasya to 4.4.25. Here he uses numbers from 1 to paraardha (155.52 trillion!) represented by lines and also alphabets represented by scripts as analogies to explain adhyAropa (deliberate superimposition) aiding in revealing knowledge of numbers and words.

It is interesting to note that our ancestors knew the place value system of numbering and were able to count up to 155 trillion, which is the largest number, which had a specific name of paraardha (50 years of Brahma’s life).

 

एष सर्वस्या उपनिषदः सङ्क्षिप्तोऽर्थ उक्तः । एतस्यैवार्थस्य सम्यक्प्रबोधाय उत्पत्तिस्थितिप्रलयादिकल्पना क्रियाकारकफलाध्यारोपणा च आत्मनि कृता ; तदपोहेन च नेति नेतीत्यध्यारोपितविशेषापनयद्वारेण पुनः तत्त्वमावेदितम् । यथा एकप्रभृत्यापरार्धसङ्ख्यास्वरूपपरिज्ञानाय रेखाध्यारोपणं कृत्वा — एकेयं रेखा, दशेयम् , शतेयम् , सहस्रेयम् — इति ग्राहयति, अवगमयति सङ्ख्यास्वरूपं केवलम् , न तु सङ्ख्याया रेखात्मत्वमेव ; यथा च अकारादीन्यक्षराणि विजिग्राहयिषुः पत्रमषीरेखादिसंयोगोपायमास्थाय वर्णानां सतत्त्वमावेदयति, न पत्रमष्याद्यात्मतामक्षराणां ग्राहयति — तथा चेह उत्पत्त्याद्यनेकोपायमास्थाय एकं ब्रह्मतत्त्वमावेदितम् , पुनः तत्कल्पितोपायजनितविशेषपरिशोधनार्थं नेति नेतीति तत्त्वोपसंहारः कृतः । बृ. उप. भा ४.४.२५

 

eṣa sarvasyā upaniṣadaḥ saṅkṣipto'rtha uktaḥ । etasyaivārthasya samyakprabodhāya utpattisthitipralayādikalpanā kriyākārakaphalādhyāropaṇā ca ātmani kṛtā ; tadapohena ca neti netītyadhyāropitaviśeṣāpanayadvāreṇa punaḥ tattvamāveditam । yathā ekaprabhṛtyāparārdhasaṅkhyāsvarūpaparijñānāya rekhādhyāropaṇaṃ kṛtvā — ekeyaṃ rekhā, daśeyam , śateyam , sahasreyam — iti grāhayati, avagamayati saṅkhyāsvarūpaṃ kevalam , na tu saṅkhyāyā rekhātmatvameva ; yathā ca akārādīnyakṣarāṇi vijigrāhayiṣuḥ patramaṣīrekhādisaṃyogopāyamāsthāya varṇānāṃ satattvamāvedayati, na patramaṣyādyātmatāmakṣarāṇāṃ grāhayati — tathā ceha utpattyādyanekopāyamāsthāya ekaṃ brahmatattvamāveditam , punaḥ tatkalpitopāyajanitaviśeṣapariśodhanārthaṃ neti netīti tattvopasaṃhāraḥ kṛtaḥ । bṛ. upa. bhā 4.4.25

 

Swami Madhavananda’s Translation

This is the purport of the whole Upaniṣad put in a nutshell. It is to bring home this purport that the ideas of projection, maintenance, dissolution, etc., as well as those of action, its factors and its results were superimposed on the Self. Again, by their negation—by the elimination of the superimposed attributes through a process of ‘Not this, not this’—the truth has been made known. Just as, in order to explain the nature of numbers from one up to a hundred thousand billions, a man superimposes them on certain lines (digits), calling one of them one, another ten, another hundred, yet another thousand, and so on, and in so doing he only expounds the nature of numbers but he never says that the numbers are the lines; or just as, in order to teach the alphabet, he has recourse to a combination of leaf, ink, lines, etc., and through them explains the nature of the letters, but he never says that the letters are the leaf, ink, lines, etc., similarly in this exposition the one entity, Brahman, has been inculcated through various means such as the projection (of the universe). Again, to eliminate the differences created by those hypothetical means, the truth has been summed up as ‘Not this, not this.’ In the end, that knowledge, further clarified so as to be undifferentiated, together with its result, has been concluded in this paragraph.

with love and prayers,

Jaishankar 

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Amazing clarity Jaishankar ji. Especially liked the word kalpanA in  उत्पत्तिस्थितिप्रलयादिकल्पना.......आत्मनि कृता.

Not only utpatti and pralaya are kalpanA, even the sthiti is also a kalpanA. What a bold statement!

Regards.

Sudhanshu Shekhar.