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Anavrtti (Sanskrit : अनावृत्ति) is a Vedic term which means – non-return to a body, final emancipation. This word refers to the Jivanmukta.
Anavrtti means path of no return. [1] It indicates the non-return of the soul to a new body, and refers to the end of the seemingly endless vicious cycle of birth, death and rebirth, the transmigration of soul from one body to another. Badarayana concludes with the statement: - अनावृत्तिः शब्दादनावृत्तिः शब्दात् || (Brahma sutra IV.iv.22) – "There is no return for the released souls on the strength of the upanishadic declaration". [2] This word, characterized by no return, is very common in Vedanta literature. [3]
Before concluding his deliberation on Brahman, Badarayana explains that the released souls are of two kinds – with or without bodies and senses; that the released soul gets all the divine powers except running the universe, and that Brahman does not abide in the effect as shown by Chandogya Upanishad (III.xii.6) –
He states that Brahman is the supreme Light beyond all changing things with which there is equality of experience alone. Having reached that state there is no return for the released soul. In this context Sankara states that Badarayana reiterates - तेषां न पुनरावृत्तिः ("They no more return to this world") (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad VI.ii.15) or न च पुनरावर्तते ("He does not return again") (Chandogya Upanishad VIII.xv.1), and adds that non-return stands as an accomplished fact for those from whom the darkness of ignorance has been completely removed as a result of their full illumination and who therefore cling to that liberation as their highest goal which exists ever as an already established fact; the non-return of those who take refuge in the qualified Brahman becomes a fact only because they too have that unconditioned Brahman as their ultimate resort. [4]
The concept of Anavrtti has a direct relation with the concept of Transmigration of Souls. Ramachandra Dattatrya Ranade in his book, A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy finds the concept of Transmigration of Souls developing in the Rig Veda. He draws our attention to the following mantras of Sukta 164 of Rishi Dirghatamas:-
whereby the Rishi asks, who has ever seen the precise mode in which the boneless soul, the very life-blood and informing spirit of the earth, comes to inhabit a bony tenement? And if a man did not know this himself, who has ever moved out of himself and gone to the wise man to receive illumination on it? (Rig Veda I.164.4), that
this breathing, speedful, moving life-principle is firmly established inside these tenements (Rig Veda I.164.30), that
the immortal principle, conjoined with the mortal one, moves backwards and forwards by virtue of its natural power; these two elements keep moving ceaselessly in opposite directions, with the result that people are able to see the one but are unable to see the other (Rig Veda I.164.38); that
the Rishi tells us he himself saw (with his mind’s eye) the guardian of the body, moving unerringly by backward and forward paths, clothed in collected and diffusive splendor, only to keep returning frequently inside the mundane regions (Rig Veda I.164.31);
and talks of those who come hither as those who are moving away, and those who are moving back as already returning hither (Rig Veda I.164.19) [5]
Ramachandra Dattatrya Ranade clarifies that whenever there is recognized the possibility of the soul coming to inhabit a body as a god-like principle from without, wherever it is supposed that the soul could likewise part from the body as it came, wherever it is thought that the soul after parting from the body could lead a life of disembodied existence, and wherever it is supposed to return again to the earth and inhabit any form of existence whatsoever, there is a kind of undying life conceived for the soul. [6] Sankara explains that the competent man, while performing all prescribed things in the householders life itself, living in the way described, to the end of his life, attains after death the world of Brahman and does not return again for becoming embodied. From the negation of return (न च पुनरावर्तते) which must occur as a matter of course, it follows that having reached the world of Hiranyagarbha through the Path of Light etc., he stays there as long as the world of Hiranyagarbha lasts, i.e. before that he does not return. [7] The choice is the psychic death, the death that means the business of realization of our otherness out of love of true liberation, which is achieved by knowledge that even transcends abstract reason. [8]
The Jivanmukta on exhaustion of the Prarabdha karma attains Videha mukti (freedom from the body) at death and becomes one with Brahman. At the time of death the functions of the organs (Speech etc.) are merged in the mind (Brahma Sutras IV.ii.1). Then the mind is merged in Prana, and the Prana (the vital force) gets merged in the Jiva (the individual Soul) (Brahma Sutras IV.ii.3-4). This mode of departure is common for both the knower of the Saguna Brahman and the ignorant up to the beginning of their ways leading to immortality because it is something pertaining to this life. The subtle body lasts up to the attainment of Brahman. Pranas of the knower of the Nirguna Brahman do not depart from the individual soul, the soul passes out of the body with the Pranas which become merged in Brahman, and absolute non-distinction with Brahman takes place – अविभागः, वचनात् (Brahma Sutras IV.ii.16). The soul of the knower of the Saguna Brahman comes to the heart at the time of death and thence goes out through the Susumna; it then follows the rays of the sun after death and goes to Brahmaloka – रश्म्यनुसारी (Brahma Sutras VI.ii.18). The texts refer to different paths and give their descriptions but Badarayana tells us that they refer to and give only different particulars of the same path – अर्चिरादिना, तत्प्रथितेः (Brahma Sutras IV.iii.1) [9]
Mundaka Upanishad (III.ii.6-9) states that at the supreme moment of final departure having become identified with the supreme Immortality (Brahman) they pure in mind become freed on every side. To their resources repair the fifteen constituents (of the body) and to their respective gods go all the gods (of the senses), and the karmas and the soul that stimulates the intellect, all become unified with the supreme Undecaying (परेऽव्यये). As rivers, flowing down, become indistinguishable on reaching the sea by giving up their names and forms, so also the illumined soul, having become freed from name and form, reaches the self-effulgent Purusa that is higher than the higher Immutable; this Self is not attained by one devoid of strength, nor through delusion, nor through knowledge unassociated with monasticism, but the Self of that knower, who strives through these means, enters into the abode that is Brahman (ब्रह्मधाम). [10] This is absorption in divinity, this is the Doctrine of Impersonal Immortality. Kaushitaki Upanishad (I.4) tells us that when the soul comes to the Path of the Gods, the soul first goes to the world of Fire, then to the world of the Wind, to the world of Varuna, to that of the Sun, of Indra, of Prajapati, and finally to the world of Brahman. The soul knowing Brahman crosses the Ageless river merely by the motion of the mind and being free from good and free from evil moves towards Brahman.
Purusha is a complex concept whose meaning evolved in Vedic and Upanishadic times. Depending on source and historical timeline, it means the cosmic being or self, awareness, and universal principle.
The Brahma Sūtras, also known as the Vedanta Sūtra, Shariraka Sūtra, and Bhikshu-sūtra, are a Sanskrit text which criticizes the metaphysical dualism of the influential Samkhya philosophy, and instead synthesizes and harmonizes divergent Upanishadic ideas and practices about the essence of existence, postulating God-like Brahman as the only origin and essence of everything. It is attributed to the sages Bādarāyaṇa, who is also called Vyāsa (arranger), but probably an accumulation of incremental additions and changes by various authors to an earlier work, completed in its surviving form in approx. 400–450 CE. The oldest version may be composed between 500 BCE and 200 BCE, with 200 BCE being the most likely date.
The Kaushitaki Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text contained inside the Rigveda. It is associated with the Kaushitaki shakha, but a Sāmānya Upanishad, meaning that it is "common" to all schools of Vedanta. It was included in Robert Hume's list of 13 Principal Upanishads, and lists as number 25 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads.
The Mahāvākyas are "The Great Sayings" of the Upanishads, as characterized by the Advaita school of Vedanta with mahā meaning great and vākya, a sentence. Most commonly, Mahāvākyas are considered four in number,
The Advaita Guru-Paramparā is the traditional lineage (parampara) of divine, Vedic and historical teachers of Advaita Vedanta. It begins with the Daiva-paramparā, the gods; followed by the Ṛṣi-paramparā, the Vedic seers; and then the Mānava-paramparā, with the historical teachers Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, and four of Shankara's pupils. Of the five contemporary acharyas, the heads of the five Advaita mathas, four acharyas trace their lineage to those four pupils and one to Adi Shankara himself.
Paramananda is a Sanskrit word composed of two words, parama and ānanda. Parama is taken to mean the highest or transcendent. Ānanda means bliss or happiness, and also suggests a deep-seated spiritual emotion that is entrenched. The Upanishadic authors also used ānanda, to denote Brahman, the Supreme Being in Hinduism.
Tajjalān is one of the few enigmatic methods in Hinduism employed by the Upanishadic seers to describe Reality or Brahman. It is a cosmological approach to the problem of Reality in the context of creation etc.
Non-difference is the nearest English translation of the Sanskrit word abheda, meaning non-existence of difference. In Vedanta philosophy this word plays a vital role in explaining the indicatory mark in respect of the unity of the individual self with the Infinite or Brahman.
Viraja is a word in the Sanskrit language, which indicates sovereignty, excellence, or splendour. Viraja is the mythical primeval being associated with creation who is often personified as the secondary creator.
Ishvaratva in Sanskrit language is an abstract noun meaning 'godhood', it also means divinity.
Bhuman (Sanskrit:भूमन) means fullness or abundance; It is a synonym of Brahman. The word, Bhuman, is derived from the word, Bahu, meaning much or many, with the suffix – imam, added after it by dropping – i, to impart the sense of the abstract noun. This word refers directly to the Supreme Self who is superior to Prana though Prana is Bhuman because of proximity where the vow of Prana, consisting in transcending all other thing is alluded to.
Jivatva means – the state of life or the state of the individual soul. Jivatva is the state of life of the Jiva, the living entity, which is a particular manifestation of Atman, the embodied being limited to psycho-physical states, and the source of avidya that suffers (repeated) transmigration as result of its actions. Until ignorance ceases the Jiva remains caught in experience of the results of actions bringing merit and demerit, and in the state of individuality (jivatva), and so long as the connection with the intellect as conditioning adjunct lasts, so long the individuality and transmigration of soul lasts.
Ikshana is a noun which means sight, care and superintendence but also refers to eye, sight, look, seeing, viewing, aspect, caring for, looking after, regarding.
In Samkhya, pradhāna is the "primal matter," "the first principle from which all material things have evolved. It is an alternate term for prakriti in a state of equilibrium of the three gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas, the three modes of prakrti. When purusha comes in contact with prakriti, the balance is distorted, and the 23 principles evolves from prakriti.
Kasaya is attachment to worldly objects and is an obstacle in the path leading to Nirvikalpa Samadhi: it is overcome through viveka, discrimination.
Trishna means – 'thirst', 'aspiration', 'longing', 'craving' or 'lusty desires', or as तृष्णज् meaning covetous, greedy or thirsting. Trishna is the Eighth Nidana, spiritual love.
Madhu-vidya is described in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad II.v.1-19, and in the Chandogya Upanishad III 1-5. Madhu-vidya or 'Honey-knowledge' is that of the supreme Bliss of the Self; it is an important Vedic teaching. This knowledge is meant to be communicated by the teacher to the disciple, by father to the son – who is worthy and inwardly ready. Indra taught Madhu-vidya to Rishi Dadhichi with a warning that it should not be communicated to anyone else.
Panchagni vidyā means - meditation on the five fires. This vidyā or knowledge appears in the Chandogya Upanishad and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. It is one of the forty-one prescribed Vedic rituals.
Nāmarūpa-vyākaraṇa, in Hindu philosophy, refers to the process of evolution of differentiation into names and forms i.e. to the unfolding of the primal state into the manifest world prior to which unfolding there was nothing that existed; it refers to the conditioned reality.
The Niralamba Upanishad is a Sanskrit text and is one of the 22 Samanya (general) Upanishads of Hinduism. The text, along with the Sarvasara Upanishad, is one of two dedicated glossaries embedded inside the collection of ancient and medieval era 108 Upanishads, on 29 basic concepts of Hindu philosophy.