Reviews Of Different Books

Page 29

REVIEWS 235 Jnanottama: nyttam nimisaj jadam). Hiriyanna quotes from the Sarartha the gloss nimisat = parinami. II.63 nagesu "mountains"; R. "trees on the banks". 11.69 sabdadyakaranirbhasah ksanapradhvamsinir drsa / nityo 'kramadrg atmaiko vyapnotiva dhiyo 'nisam - "The one motionless Self, not subject to sequence or succession in time, the eternal Seer, constantly pervades, as it were, the flickering modifications of the mind, which in turn illumine the forms of material objects". R. "The one, eternal and non-successive seer, through his consciousness, pervades as it were, all the perishing functions of the mind always which take up forms of objects like sound and colour". Alston does not translate drsa. Hiriyanna quotes from the Sarartha: sabdadyakarena nirbhasanta iti sabdadyakaranirbhasah tattadvisayakara vrttih - "They appear in the form of sound, etc. The functions of the mind appear in the form of sound, etc., they take the form of their objects". This gloss shows clearly that nirbhasa means 'appearance', not 'illumination' or 'reflection'. According to Hacker the relation of the Self to the mind is similar to that of the mind to the objects: "der die Formen der Objekte erleuchtende oder reflektierende Innere Sinn ist seinerseits Objekt der Erhellung durch den Atman (sabdady-akara-nirbhasa ... bhasya II 91)". (p. 45). However, the mind transforms itself in the forms of the objects but the Self does not transform itself into the mind. 11.94 yadyad visesanam drstam natmanas tad ananvayat - "No qualification seen anywhere belongs to the Self, for it conforms to no limitations". R. "Nothing that appears as qualitatively determining the Self, does really belong to the Self". Neither translation renders ananvayat correctly. Hacker explains very well: "er [i.e. der Atman) ist eigenschaftslos (nirvisesana), denn alle individuellen Qualitaten haften ihm nicht dauernd und durchweg an (ananvaya)" (p. 39). One may suggest the following translation: "No qualifications seen anywhere belong to the Self, for they are not permanently associated with it". 111.6 Intr. nihsamdhibandhanam mithyajnanam - "erroneous knowledge which consists in connecting what are not connected". R. "false knowledge, attaching itself fast". Hacker renders nihsandhibandhana as "feste Verknupfung" (p. 58). III.6d jnatmana tyajayed vacah - "One should give up the words through awakening to the Self as knowledge". R. "The words of the scripture set it aside by focussing on the Self of the nature of the pure consciousness". Alston has not seen that vacas is the subject: "The words of the scripture make one give up (ignorance) by means of the Self, the knower". See also Hiriyanna's quotation from the Sarartha (p. 257). 111.73 bhrantiprasiddhyanudyartham tat tattvam bhrantibadhaya / ayam nety upadisyeta tathaivam tat tvam ity api - "When a man wishes to dispel the erroneous notion of another, he first conforms his speech to that erroneous notion as if it were a fact, and then he says it is not so'. The same is the case with 'that' and 'thou'." R. "When something is the object of an illusory apprehension, it is first of all referred to as it is known under the illusion and then its real nature is taught by the removal of the illusion by saying 'This is not so'. So is the case in 'That thou art' also". 111.79 samsaritadvitiyena paroksyam catmana saha / prasangikam viruddhatvat tattvambhyam badhanam tayoh - "Being the transmigrant' and 'not-being-immediately-evident' are only accidental characteristics of the Self, since they are in mutual contradiction. They are therefore both negated, (the first) by 'that', and (the second) by 'thou'." - R. "Being in bondage is contradicted by being one without a second. Being mediate and indirectly presented is contradicted by self-hood. The two terms 'That' and 'Thou' intending a unitary import sublate by implication these contradicted meanings". Alston follows Hacker in interpreting prasangika as 'accidental (cf. Hacker p. 81: 'zufallig'). However, Jnanottama explains prasangika by nantariyaka, 'inherent', a meaning which is not to be found in the Petersburg Dictionaries. However, it is given by Monier-Williams with a reference to Wilson's dictionary: `inherent',