Pratyabhijñā in mānasollāsa
rāhugrastadivākarendusadṛśo
māyāsamācchādanāt
sanmātraḥ karaṇopasaṃharaṇato
yo'bhūtsuṣuptaḥ pumān ।
prāgasvāpsamiti prabodhasamaye yaḥ
pratyabhijñāyate
tasmai śrīgurumūrtaye nama idaṃ
śrī dakṣiṇāmūrtaye ॥
kailāsācala madhyasthaṃ
kāmitābhīṣṭa dāyakam
brahmādi prārthanā prāpta divya mānuṣavigraham
bhaktānugrahaṇaikānta
śānta svānta samujjvalam
saṃyajñaṃ sayṁyamīndrāṇāṃ sārvabhaumaṃ jagadgurum
We worship that Kailāsācala-madhyastha Īśvara,
the kāmitābhīṣṭa-dāyaka,
giver of all cherished boons,
who, at the prayer of Brahmā and the devas,
appeared in a divya-mānuṣa-vigraha, a divine human form;
whose heart is śānta-svānta-samujjvalam, shines with peace and compassion,
whose only aim is bhakta-anugraham;
the saṃyamin-indrāṇām sārvabhauma, sovereign
among ascetics,
we bow to the jagad-guru Śrī Ādi Śaṅkarācārya.
viśvaṃ
māyā mayatvena rūpitaṃ
yat prabodhataḥ |
viśvaṃ ca yat svarūpaṃ taṃ vārtikācāryam āśraye ||
The world, which is fashioned by māyā, is, upon awakening (jñāna prabodhanam), is seen in its very svarūpa (i.e. as Brahman itself), through the lucid exposition of Vārtikācārya (Sureśvarācārya), in whom I take refuge.
Introduction
In this discussion below, pratyabhijñā = recognition
of identity, is explained as the cognition that identifies two temporal or modal
experiences as one (e.g - as when one says “I slept happily” or “This
is that Devadatta.” )
Such cognition involves both memory (of the past
perception) and direct perception (of the present), but differs from
mere smṛti because
the past object is not simply recalled, it is recognized as
identical with what is now present.
Sri Sureśvara and the Mānasollāsa explain that this pratyabhijñā is not enumerated as a separate pramāṇa (means of
knowledge) yet it performs the work of knowledge
by dispelling the illusion of difference caused by distinct limiting
adjuncts (upādhis).
The Tattvaśuddhi (not included here) and Mānasollāsa both affirm that pratyabhijñā truly functions as a pramāṇa, specifically, as a distinctive form of pratyakṣa-pramāṇa (direct perception) because its content, “the same Devadatta” or “the same Self,” is immediately self-evident to consciousness. This recognition arises not through inference but through the direct illumination of consciousness itself, aided by latent impressions (saṃskāra) of the prior perception, wherein the Self was seen under adhyāsa (superimposed identification).
In ordinary experience, every act of recognizing a person, object, or state rests upon the cognition of identity. In siddhānta, this principle attains its highest expression in the recognition (pratyabhijñā) of the Self as the very same consciousness that pervades the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep (& as such).
What pratyabhijñā truly achieves is
the removal of the notion of difference (bheda bhrānti)
between these experiences, revealing the unbroken reality (akhaṇḍārtha) of the one Ātman.
Hence, while pratyabhijñā may not be listed as an
independent pramāṇa,
it is accepted as the operative form of direct, self luminous
awareness that reveals identity by negating illusion = a recognition that,
in the highest sense, is the realization of Brahman Itself.
KEY THESIS: Throughout these verses, Śrī Sureśvarācārya moves pratyabhijñā from a common cognitive act (“This is that Devadatta”) to the spiritual recognition of the Self as Brahman. We often hesitate to say “recognize the Self” because it can sound like we’re turning Brahman into an object.
Sri Sureśvarācārya
solves this with a subtle move: pratyabhijñā --> recognition of identity --> operates
as Self recognition, not object cognition. It is the way śruti pramāṇa reveals what ever is, by
removing the illusion of difference (bheda bhrānti). In this sense,
pratyabhijñā is not a “sixth pramāṇa,”
but the revealing function present in every genuine knowing.
From Everyday Recognition à Self recognition
Śloka (7.21)
suṣupti samaye api ātmā satya jñāna sukha ātmakaḥ |
sukham asvāpsam iti evaṃ
pratyabhijñāyate yataḥ
||
Even in deep sleep, the Self is Existence Consciousness Bliss; we later recognize
(pratyabhijñāyate) it by “I slept happily.”
EXT: Here pratyabhijñā = recognition of the same Self across states, showing continuity of consciousness even in the absence of mental activity. The refutation of kṣaṇika-vāda (the doctrine of momentary consciousness) is not taken up here, in order to keep the focus on a Vedāntin’s contemplative appreciation of how pratyabhijñā serves as the key to recognizing the ever-continuous Self.
Śloka (7.22)
pratyabhijñāyate iti prayogaḥ
karma kartari ।
ātmā svayam prakāśa tvāt jānāti ātmānam ātmanā ॥
22 ॥
“The expression ‘pratyabhijñāyate’ (‘is recognized’) is used in the active
sense (karma kartari), for the Self (ātmā), being self luminous
(svayam prakāśa), knows Itself by Itself (jānāti ātmānam
ātmanā).”
EXT: Thus, pratyabhijñā is self recognition of consciousness not mediated by another instrument; the knower and known are one). The expression does not mean Self is perceived by another. This is clarified here. When the ignorance in the form of anyatha bhāvam, is removed with Guru, Sruti, Yukti - the recognition happens therein. The Self is Parmeshwara Himself (says Sri Sureshwarāchārya) in 7.27, partless, changeless, unmanifested, stainless, all-pervading and free of all upādhis.
What kind of knowing is pratyabhijñā?
pratyabhijñā balād ātmā sthāyī nirdhāryate yadi |
kā nāma pratyabhijñā eṣā kiṃ vā tasyāḥ prayojanam || 8.1
If the Self’s permanence is established by recognition (pratyabhijñā), what exactly is this cognition and what purpose does it serve?
EXT: Pratyabhijñā introduced as a distinct epistemic
function, neither perception nor memory, but recognition of identity.
Śloka (8.2)
pratyakṣādi pramāṇeṣu
pratyabhijñā na paṭhyate
|
kathaṃ tasyāḥ pramāṇatvam iti pṛcchan prabodhyate ||
Since pratyabhijñā isn’t listed among the classical pramāṇas, how can it still yield valid knowledge?
EXT: Objection: “Recognition isn’t listed as a separate pramāṇa.” Swāmi acknowledges the
question to clarify that pratyabhijñā is not an independent pramāṇa, but a specific
operation of knowledge, revealing the same object known before. Pratyabhijñā =
a function within existing pramāṇas,
not a sixth one. This section of the v
Śloka (8.3)
bhātasya kasya cit pūrvaṃ bhāsamānasya sāmpratam |
so ’yam iti anusandhānaṃ pratyabhijñānam ucyate ||
When something previously seen appears again, and one connects the two as “this is that,” that cognition is called recognition (pratyabhijñāna).
EXT: Identity recognition linking across past and present (temporal) experiences.
Śloka (8.4)
tad deśa kāla ākārādi navadhūya anuṣaṅgikān |
yathā ekaṃ vastu anusyūtaṃ so ’yam iti abhidhīyate ||
Setting aside variations of time, place, and form, one perceives the underlying sameness and says “this is that.”
EXT: Pratyabhijñā = apprehension of the unchanging
substratum under changing adjuncts. Recognition requires ignoring
changing adjuncts (time, place, form) to see the invariant substratum as the
same.
A Key Takeaway here is that Pratyabhijñā is a special epistemic operation. It’s not mere memory (smṛti), not new perception; it’s the identity cognition that unites past and present or, in Vedānta’s highest use, jīva and Brahman. It’s leads to cancellation of difference and subsequent abiding in the shining sameness.
Śloka (8.5)
māyā anuṣaṅga
sañjāta kiñcit jñatva ādi apohanāt |
sarvajñatva ādi vijñānaṃ pratyabhijñānam ātmanaḥ ||
When māyā born limitations (like partial knowledge) are negated, the
realization of omniscience arises, this is the recognition
(pratyabhijñā) of the Self.
EXT: Pratyabhijñā = Self recognition as limitless consciousness. Here the Sruti and Guru play the enabling role.
In the context of the sloka the discussion moves towards how the Self (which is same across waking, dream and deep sleep), is actually same across multiple stages of growth and decay in one life + across lives.........bālyādiṣvapi jāgradādiṣu tathā sarvāsu avasthās vapi....
The Swami (Sri Sureshwarāchārya) says in 8.7 - "Atman exists the same even in other bodies, else without the recollection of a former experience (at organic and sub-organic ~ subtle body level), it is not possible for the child to suck the mother's milk" . The discussion in tradition here is shifts to nature of pramāṇa and is pratyabhijñā a pramāṇa.
Is pratyabhijñā a pramāṇa?
Here too I'd encourage savvy readers to go through following sections of the bhasyam (Br.Su.2.1.18, BG 2.16) to understand (the intent behind promoting pratyabhijñā by Sri Sureshwarāchārya)
e.g - na ca viśeṣa-darśana-mātreṇa vastv-anyatvaṃ bhavati / Br. Su. 2.1. 18
Nor does an entity become different merely because of the perception of some particular difference (viśeṣa).
na hi devadattaḥ saṃkucita-hasta-pādaḥ prasārita-hasta-pādaś ca viśeṣeṇa dṛśyamāno ’pi vastv-anyatvaṃ gacchati /
Devadatta, though seen with hands and feet folded or stretched, does not, by such difference of appearance, become another person.
sa eva iti pratyabhijñānāt /
For he is recognized as “the same one” (sa eva iti) through the act of recognition (pratyabhijñā).
e.g. -sarvatra buddhi-dvayopalabdheḥ, sad-buddhir asad-buddhir iti | BG 2.16
Throughout the sphere of cognitive experience, we always have to deal with two cognitions:- (1) the cognition of the real (sat-buddhi), and (2) the cognition of the unreal (asat-buddhi).
yad-viṣayā buddhir na vyabhicarati, tat sat |
That alone is real whose cognition is not mutable.
yad-viṣayā vyabhicarati, tad asat |
And that is unreal whose cognition proves mutable.
iti sad-asad-vibhāge buddhi-tantre sthite |
Thus the distinction between the real and the unreal rests upon cognition itself.
sarvatra dve buddhī sarvair upalabhyete samānādhikaraṇe na nīlotpalavat |
Throughout the whole sphere of experience, these two cognitions, having one and the same substratum, are available to everyone, not as two separate qualities such as “blue” and “lotus.”
san ghaṭaḥ san paṭaḥ san hastī iti |
The right examples are: “the pot is,” “the cloth is,” “the elephant is,” and so on everywhere.
tayor buddhyoḥ ghaṭādi-buddhir vyabhicarati |
Of these two cognitions, that whose content is the pot and the like is mutable — it changes.
tathā ca darśitam |
And so it has already been demonstrated.
na tu sad-buddhiḥ |
Not so the cognition of reality (sat-buddhi); that does not vary.
tasmāt ghaṭādi-buddhi-viṣayaḥ asan, vyabhicārāt |
Therefore, being mutable, the objects such as the pot and the like are unreal.
na tu sad-buddhi-viṣayaḥ, avyabhicārāt ||
But the object of the cognition of the Real is not so; it is immutable and hence Real.
The point to be made is in the context of our essay, is that every experience carries both a transient form-cognition (“pot”) and an invariant existence-cognition (“isness”). The mind recognizes the same is-ness (sat) across all objects an implicit pratyabhijñā of Being itself. What is recognized as constant through all cognitions (the sad-buddhi) is Real; what changes (the ghaṭa-buddhi, etc.) is Unreal. So the fundamental Vedāntic import is this continuous recognition of is-ness is ultimately the recognition of Brahman-Existence (sat-brahman) shining through every perception.
The discussion in the vartika turns towards how is pratyabhijñā a pramāṇa? (8.7-8.15).
For example - Sri Sureśvara challenges the Nyāya view that pratyabhijñā (“This is that Devadatta”) is only a kind of memory. If recognition were just memory, it could not yield fresh, immediate awareness of identity (ātma-sthairya i.e., the stability of the same consciousness). Recognition, unlike memory, affirms the Self’s direct, unwavering presence therefore, it functions as a pramāṇa, a valid cognition, not a recollection. Memory merely revives a trace of past and it does not present the object itself, whereas pratyabhijñā, which simultaneously involves both a present perception and an immediate recognition of identity, cannot be lumped into the category of "mere memory".
Verses 13–15 of the Mānasollāsa form a seamless triad explaining how recognition (pratyabhijñā) is grounded in the ever-present Self. Even when an experienced object or its perception disappears (v.13–14), the illuminating consciousness, the anapāyin ātman, “ever-unfailing knower”, never ceases to reveal itself. The Self is never truly obscured or lost; delusion arises only in the mind’s domain, while consciousness remains self-luminous and continuous, the very ground that makes both memory and recognition possible.
Śloka (8.16)
arthān ācchadayet māyā vidyā vyākṣipya darśayet |
pratyabhijñā eva sarveṣāṃ pramāṇānāṃ ca sādhanam ||
Māyā conceals; knowledge (vidyā) reveals. Recognition (pratyabhijñā) is the operative power in every pramāṇa.
(Borrowing from Sri Alladi Mahadeva Sastriji's explanation but paraphrasing slightly : -
In every act of knowing, whether perception, inference, or scripture, the underlying awareness “I have known this” is the mark of pratyabhijñā, the self’s recognition of its own continuity through cognition. Thus, vidyā is not a new production of knowledge but the shining forth of what always was, through the removal of obscuration. In this sense, pratyabhijñā is the universal operative principle in all pramāṇas --> the intrinsic power of consciousness to recognize its own light in the known. It is simultaneously the remover of ignorance, the revealer of truth, and the very essence of the pratyagātman—the inward, self-luminous witness that makes knowing possible at all.)
Māyā, which causes the division “Īśvara is one and I am another,” when dispelled by true knowledge (vidyā), gives way to the recognition, “I am Īśvara.” - Says Sri Sureshwarāchārya, in 8.17.
In a climatic sense Swami says (8.18) - The Lord (Īśaḥ), whose radiance was dimmed (īṣat-prakāśaḥ abhūt) by the curtain of Māyā (māyā-yavanikā-āvṛtaḥ), shines forth in full glory (samyag-āvāraṇa-apāye sphuret), like the thousand-rayed sun (sahasrāṃśuḥ iva) emerging unobstructed when the veil is gone.
Śloka (8.19)
na kāraṇānāṃ vyāpāraḥ pramāṇānāṃ na vā punaḥ |
pratyabhijñāpanaṃ nāma moha apasaraṇaṃ param ||
na kāraṇānāṃ vyāpāraḥ - Not the operation of causes (such as sense-organs, mind, or intellect);
pramāṇānāṃ na vā punaḥ - nor indeed the activity of the pramāṇas (the instruments of knowledge, like perception, inference, or scripture);
pratyabhijñāpanam nāma - that which is called recognition (pratyabhijñāpanam);
mohāpasaraṇam param - is nothing but the supreme removal (apaharaṇa, withdrawal) of delusion (moha).
Pratyabhijñā is simply the supreme removal of delusion.
EXT: Knowledge as revelation, not
production.
The Culmination: Recognition = Liberation
Śloka (8.31)
pratyabhijñāyate vastu prāg vat moha vyapohite |
deha ādi upādhau nirdhūte syāt ātmā eva maheśvaraḥ ||
When delusion is removed, the Reality is recognized (pratyabhijñāyate) as before; with upādhis gone, the Self alone shines as Maheśvara.
EXT: Final recognition = liberation,
the Self known as ever the same. Here too we see how the Advaita Sampradhaya see Atman as identical with Ishwara.
Śloka (8.32)
smṛtiḥ pratyakṣam aitihyam
ityādi ny aparaṇy
api |
pramāṇāny āptavāg āha pratyabhijñā–prasiddhaye ||
Even smṛti, perception, and scripture are all for the establishment of pratyabhijñā (recognition).
EXT: Every pramāṇa culminates in recognition of the ever known
Self.
Conclusion
Objection: “Saying ‘recognize’ risks objectifying Brahman.”
Reply (Sureśvara): pratyabhijñāyate is karma-kartari,
grammatically active in sense; the Self recognizes Itself (ātmā jānāti
ātmānam ātmanā). There is no second knower.
Therefore: “recognition” is non-objectifying
self-acknowledgment—the Subject resting as the Subject.
Basic Anthology
so ’yam = “This is that”: the classic form of pratyabhijñā.
svayam-prakāśa = Self-luminous: the ground of any recognition.
moha-apasaraṇa = removal of
delusion: what recognition does.
akhaṇḍārtha = one
indivisible content: what recognition sees.
Recap
Pratyabhijñā is a word accepted in Advaita (Mānasollāsa,
Tattvasuddhi & tīkās): not a separate pramāṇa,
but the revealing action within pramāṇas, especially
śruti.
Final pratyabhijñā = mokṣa: the end of the mind’s last objectifying impulse; the ever-present shines without a veil.
Following references were the key to the preparation of this essay.
Dakshinamurti Stotra With Manasollasa Swami Harshanandaji Maharaj
Sri Alladi Mahadeva Sastriji's exposition
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