Adhyasa bhasya of Adi Sankara

Course content

The study of Vedanta sastra includes the upaniṣads, bhagavad gītā and brahma sutras, otherwise known as the prasthana trayam. The brahma sutras, heavily infused with reasoning, provides the logic for easy assimilation of the Self-knowledge gathered through the upaniṣads and bhagavad gita. Prior to writing a detailed and masterly commentary on the brahma sutras, Sankara introduces the basic premise of the human bondage caused by the ignorance of the Self.

Interestingly, the ignorance of the Self is not total. If it were, there will be no human self-judgement and self-complex, the hallmarks of Self-ignorance. If something is both known and unknown at the same time, that is, partially known and partially unknown, then it serves as an ideal locus for a superimposition to occur. For example, a rope seen in insufficient light, thereby recognized as only some object but not as a rope, is then mistaken to be a snake. The snake is a superimposition on the locus of the rope. A snake is seen in a locus other than its own and the rope is mistaken to be something that it is not.

The superimposition, called adhyasa, is because of the ignorance of the locus, that is, of the rope in the example. The adhyasa is an error or a mistake but the one who makes it pays for it dearly. The mistake causes fear that is unjustified and makes the person to run away from the imaginary snake. The Self is also not totally unknown. It satisfies the conditions for one to make a mistake. The non-Self is superimposed on the Self.

The attributes of the non-Self, such as death, is superimposed on the Self and one fears mortality. Thus, samsara, the cycle of birth and death, is caused by adhyasa which in turn is due to the ignorance, ajnanam, of the Self. In other words, ajnanam causes adhyasa and adhyasa causes samsara. This is the essence of the adhyasa bhasya.