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BILHETA-919. 112 Ānandamaya is Brahman.
According to the second interpretation which some scholars like Deussen have dubbed as an interpolation, (but we believe it to be as authentic as the first one), Anandamaya is not Brahman. It is one of the five sheaths, as Śankarācārya says in his B.S.S.B., aff4f402019144844 3477644446m: Yo tem orice is the five sheaths extending from the sheath of food upto the sheath of bliss are merely introduced for the purpose of setting forth the knowledge of Brahman.
Similar interpretation is offered in the T.U.bhāsya, and in the T.U.bhāsya by Sankarācārya the interpretation resembling that of the first interpretation in the B.S.S.B., is nowhere in sight. It is most interesting and edifying to see how Sankarācārya fortifies the thought that Anandamaya is not Brahman. The bhāșya in the Upanisad runs as follows :
अन्नमयादिभ्य आनन्दमयान्तेभ्य आत्मभ्योऽभ्यन्तरतमं ब्रह्म विद्यया प्रत्यगात्मत्वेन दिदर्शयिषुः शास्त्रं अविद्याकृतपञ्चकोशापनयनेन अनेकतुषकोद्रववितुषीकरणेनेव तदन्तर्गत तण्डुलान्प्रस्तौति । तस्माद्वा एतस्मादन्नरसमयादित्यादि ।
Brahman is the inmost of all selves beginning from the physical sheath and ending with the blissful one. The scripture starts with the text तस्मात् वा एतस्मात् अन्नरसमयात् etc. with a view to revealing through knowledge that Brahman as the indwelling self by following a process of eliminating the five sheaths just as rice is extracted from the grain called Kodrava that has many husks.?
Thus Anandamaya is not Brahman and it is one of the sheaths which one has to transcend in order to realise Brahman.
The T.U. bhāsya is running close parallel to the second interpretation offered by the great ācārya in his B.S.S.B.
As Sankarācārya was writing an elaborate bhāsya on the T.U., he makes some other subtler points which he did not mention in his bhāsya on the Anandamayadhikarana in the For Private & Personal Use Only
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