Atma - 56-Tiryagūrdhvamadhaḥ pūrṇaṃ

Atmabodha Commentary by Swami Paramarthananda

Brahma svarupam – Continued
(Verse 56)
tiryagūrdhvamadhaḥ pūrṇaṁ saccidānandamadvayam | anantaṁ nityamēkaṁ yat tadbrahmētyavadhārayēt ||
So the 4th line is similar to that of the previous two ślōkās. Tat brahma iti avadhārayēt – that
is Brahman.

What is Brahman? – Tiryag ūrdhvaṁ adhaḥ pūrṇaṁ – that is which is full at all levels. Tiryag means at our level, middle level or horizontal level. Ūrdhvaṁ means upper level. Adhaḥ means lower level. In short, the idea is that at all levels Brahman is pūrṇaṁ. And sacchidānandaṁ and advayaṁ – we have already seen these words and therefore no explanation is necessary. It is of the nature of existence, awareness and ānandaḥ. At the level of Brahman, we call the pūrṇatvaṁ as anantaḥ. But when we discover that pūrṇatvaṁ in our mind, it expresses as ānandaḥ. So anantaḥ ēva antaḥkaraṇa parē– at the level of antaḥ karaṇaṁ is the expression of ānandaḥ. Pūrṇatvaṁ in mind is ānandaḥ. Minus mind the same ānandaḥ is anantaḥ- Satyam jñānaṁ anantaṁ. They correspond to sat, cit and ānanda at the individual level. And therefore, advayaṁ – non dual – sajātīya vijātīya svagata bhēda rahitaṁ – free from all types of differences (differentiations).

This can be understood only if we know jagat is mithyā. If jagat also is satyaṁ there will be
vijātīya bhēdaṁ because one is cētanaṁ and the other is jaḍaṁ. That is why in all other

philosophies, vijātīya bhēdaṁ cannot be negated. In Viśiṣṭa advaitāṁ they say sajātīya bhēdaṁ is not there because there are no two Īśvaraḥ. But vijātīya bhēdaṁ they will have to accept because one is cētanaṁ and other is jaḍaṁ. But in advaitā alone vijātīya bhēdaṁ is negated.

Now if one says world is visible, we say that we don’t negate the visibility–pratitiṁ na niṣēdāmaḥ parantu satyatvaṁ ēva niṣēdāmaḥ. We are not negating the experience of the world. We are only negating the existence of the world. We are not negating the experience of blue sky. We are only negating the existence of the blue sky.

Then anantaṁ – means antaḥ rahitaṁ – all these words we have already seen. Anantaṁ indicates dēśataḥ aparicchinnaṁ. Nityaṁ indicates kālataḥ aparicchinnaṁ. In English anantaṁ can be taken to mean all pervading; nityaṁ is eternal. Ēkaṁ vastutaḥ aparicchinnaṁ. There is no second thing at all. We can take this as explanation for advayaṁ which means anantaṁ, nityaṁ, ēkaṁ, dēśataḥ, kālataḥ, vastutaḥ paricchēda śūnyaṁ yat. The thing which is like this, that is Brahman. It is this Brahman that jīvan muktaḥ merges with.