--- sadagopaniyengar <sadagopaniyengar@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > The Stranger > Would anybody tell me how to find this Stranger? > ******************** Dear SrimAn Sadagopan, Yes, there is a very old, time-tested, ingenious way to find the Stranger. The BrhadAranyaka Upanishad advises us to adopt a very special method ... It is called the method of "universal exclusion by means of a pronoun". What is this "universal exclusion by a pronoun"? The Upanishad has a patented name for it ...very famous in Vedanta philosophy world-wide... It says "nEti, nEti" which pronoun in Sanksrit literally means "na iti, na iti" --- or "not this, not this". To put it very simply (describing the method of the Upanishad), first consider all that exists in this world, one by one in the beginning, and then altogether... Then systematically reject it all, one by one first and then collectively, as being NOT definitive or attributive of the Stranger. By a process of continuous and inexorable exclusion ... saying "nEti, nEti", "not this", "not this"... the Upanishad says one can arrive at what finally remains... the Stranger, you talk about. Thus we see how the BrhadAranyaka Upanishad uses a mere simple pronoun -- "na iti, na iti" -- and raises it to the level of a tool of philosophical inquiry. In a manner of speaking, we might thus say that the Stranger is to be found in a pronoun. ******* ******** ******* NammAzhwAr was a supreme Vedantin. He began his 'tiruvoimOzhi', at the very outset, with an attempt to "search and seize" the Stranger, the Supreme Being ... And taking a cue from the BrhadAranyaka Upanishad, he did so too with a profusion of pronouns ... Read this for example: nAm avan ivan uvan, avan ivaL uvaL evaL tAm avar ivar uvar, adhu idhu udhu edhu veem avai ivai uvai avai nalam teengu avai, aam avai, aaya-vai, aay-ninra avarE. (1.1.4 tiruvoimOzhi) The above verse in Tamil is composed of almost entirely nothing but pronouns! It sounds like a child's tongue-twisting rhyme, doesn't it?! Now what does this "plethoric, poetic pitter-patter of pronouns" mean? Let's turn to the poet's translation of it: "We here and that man, this man, and that other in-between, and that woman, this woman, and that other, whoever, those people, and these, and these others in-between, and this thing, that thing, and this other in-between, whichever, all things dying, these things, those things, those others in-between, good things, bad things, things that were, that will be, being all of them, he stands there." (A.K.Ramanujan: "Hymns for the Drowning") ********** ********** ********** If the BrhadAranyaka Upanishad asks us to "exclude" by means of a pronoun, we find NammAzhwAr here in the 'tiruvoimOzhi' beginning by asking us to "include" everything by means of not 1 pronoun but by a host of them.... On the one hand we shall know the Stranger by excluding Him from everything in this world i.e. 'nEti, nEti' according to the Upanishad; and conversely, by "including" too everything within Him as NammAzhwAr seems to do -- "aam avai, aaya-vai, aay-ninra avarE!". The Stranger "being all of them, he stands there"! Now, Sir, I hope will you be able to find the Stranger? dAsan, Sudarshan __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com
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