Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Parabrahman [Re: vinaire] #13739 - 03/22/02 02:34 AM Edit Reply Quote

Dear Vinaire, I do like your translations of ParaBrahman and/or Nirguna-Brahman and Saguna-Brahman. My considerations were (maybe sometimes clumsy) efforts to find an appropriate translation for those authentic words. Haha, you're right that the considerations are mere creations. Somehow these words were created in a classification. My goal was to find a synonym in modern language, sticking very close to the rootmeaning and still making some sense. It became very clear that there is slight difference between "para=beyond" and "nir=without' with Brahman, not only in the rootmeaning, but also in the descriptions of older Yogis like GorakhNath, and even older authorities. Thus, Nirguna is not the Nameless One, though mostly used as Parabrahman. It is convenient to use just Cause for everything beyond Saguna. If there's a slight difference between Para and Nir, then NirGuna Brahman would be in PraBrahman a Possibility as selfdetermination? The very word Brahman, from brh=to expand (related to the other verb vrdh, which we know nowadays as the Hindi Barh-na). But it has also the another rootmeaning related to trembling/sounding or N�da, which word is put in a compound with Brahman. (Brahman is also a P�ribh�shika or technical word for Mantra. Brh = Sound and man=that which has. We find this wordmeaning in Brh-as pati=Lord of Speech and Brahman-as pati, both in Tatpurusha Sam�sa) I have another simple classification of my own, which I used when I was younger : Asti-tva or Being-ness This is the verb as=to be in the abstractum. (This is the Nirguna) Asti-tva or (It-)Is-ness (Guna-tva) That is the (It-)Is-ness or existence, attributive: There's Purusha and there's Prakrti, becoming manifest. The verb as=to be is here conjugated as third person singular. (This is the Saguna, with the following progression) Aham-tva or I-ness Here the I comes in and makes distinctions between the I (as I am a Paurusha) and That (as That is a Pr�krta). Mama-tva or Mine-ness Here the sense of I am different, and That is Mine comes in. Dvandva Here the possiveness gives the solid conflicts within and between possessors. With the Astitva as homonyms but different functions within the rootverb as=to be, Brahman is both Saguna and Nirguna. The Pravrtti is the so-to-say segregative pro-gression and the Nirvtti the so-to-say integrative re(tro)-gression or return. Edited by Ishwa on 03/22/02 02:15 AM (server time).