\u201cBook of Dzyan,\u201d stanza 1, verse 8, is given by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine<\/i> (vol. 1, p. 46) as:<\/p>\n
\u201c8. Alone, the one form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that All-Presence which is sensed by the \u2018Opened Eye\u2019 of the Dangma.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her commentary on this verse, Blavatsky says (p. 46): \u201cThe Secret Doctrine carries this idea into the region of metaphysics and postulates a \u2018One Form of Existence\u2019 as the basis and source of all things. But perhaps the phrase, the \u2018One Form of Existence,\u2019 is not altogether correct. The Sanskrit word is Prabhavapyaya, \u2018the place, or rather plane, whence emerges the origination, and into which is the resolution of all things,\u2019 says a commentator.\u201d<\/p>\n
This appears to be one of the very rare instances where we are given an original term, prabhav\u0101pyaya, behind a translation, \u201cthe one form of existence,\u201d from the Book of Dzyan. From what she told us earlier (p. 23), \u201cExtracts are given from the Chinese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit translations of the original Senzar Commentaries and Glosses on the Book of Dzyan,\u201d this would be a term from the Sanskrit translation. It is also possible, however, that Blavatsky is here merely giving another, later Sanskrit equivalent of the Senzar term, as might be found in the later Sanskrit texts that are now available. The commentator referred to is \u015ar\u012bdhara-sv\u0101mi. She quoted this Sanskrit term and its explanation from editor Fitzedward Hall\u2019s footnote to H. H. Wilson\u2019s translation of The Vishnu Purana<\/i> (vol. 1, 1864, p. 21). I had at first favored the latter of these two possibilities, because I wondered why the Vi\u1e63\u1e47u-pur\u0101\u1e47a<\/i> term would be found in the Sanskrit translation of the Book of Dzyan or its commentaries. The pur\u0101\u1e47as as now extant are known to have been continually revised. But once we know that there was an original Pur\u0101\u1e47a-sa\u1e43hit\u0101<\/i>, and that this word prabhav\u0101pyaya was found in it, the former of the two possibilities becomes quite plausible. Moreover, prabhav\u0101pyaya is a somewhat archaic Sanskrit word.<\/p>\n
The word prabhav\u0101pyaya is found in the fourth verse of the cosmogony account derived from the original Pur\u0101\u1e47a-sa\u1e43hit\u0101<\/i>, as may be seen in the September 1 (2012) posting: Creation Stories: The Cosmogony Account from the Pur\u0101\u1e47as, Part 2. \u201cIn the Beginning\u201d as Derived from the Original Pur\u0101\u1e47a-sa\u1e43hit\u0101<\/i>. This verse is:<\/p>\n
an\u0101dy-antam aja\u1e43 s\u016bk\u1e63ma\u1e43 tri-gu\u1e47a\u1e43 prabhav\u0101pyayam |<\/p>\n
as\u0101mpratam avij\u00f1eya\u1e43 brahm\u0101gre samavarttata || 4.20 ||<\/p>\n
4.20. In the beginning there was brahman, without beginning or end, unborn, subtle, having the three qualities (gu\u1e47a), the origin and cessation [of the cosmos], timeless, and unknowable.<\/p>\n
The term prabhav\u0101pyaya, here translated as \u201cthe origin and cessation [of the cosmos],\u201d is a compound of two words: prabhava and apyaya. The first of these, prabhava, is common enough, and means \u201csource\u201d or \u201corigin.\u201d The second of these, apyaya, is quite uncommon and rather archaic. This word was so unfamiliar that in about half of the pur\u0101\u1e47a sources it was changed over the centuries to the much more familiar avyaya, commonly understood as \u201cimperishable.\u201d In fact, the recently published critical edition of the Vi\u1e63\u1e47u-pur\u0101\u1e47a<\/i> (see posting dated May 5, 2012) adopted prabhav\u0101vyaya rather than prabhav\u0101pyaya (1.2.21), based on 16 of 27 manuscripts. Yet, prabhav\u0101pyaya is found in the famous M\u0101\u1e47\u1e0d\u016bkya-upani\u1e63ad<\/i> (verse 6). What makes apyaya hard to recognize is the archaic prefix \u201capi\u201d rather than the standard prefix \u201cabhi\u201d (the change of final \u201ci\u201d to \u201cy\u201d before a vowel is normal). This is easily confused with the common Sanskrit indeclinable word, \u201capi.\u201d Once this is recognized as a prefix, a rare and little used prefix, the rest of the word\u2019s derivation is simple. The \u201caya\u201d can now be seen to come from the verb-root \u201ci,\u201d meaning \u201cgo.\u201d The idea is \u201cgo into,\u201d \u201center into,\u201d disappear or be absorbed. So it may be translated as \u201ccessation\u201d or \u201cdissolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The commentator \u015ar\u012bdhara-sv\u0101mi explains apyaya by giving its verbal form, apiyanti, and glosses this as l\u012byante, \u201cdissolves.\u201d He then says that it is the laya-sth\u0101na, the \u201cplace of dissolution.\u201d It is about this word \u201cplace\u201d (sth\u0101na) that Blavatsky says, \u201cthe place, or rather plane.\u201d So she in turn glosses \u201cplace\u201d as \u201cplane,\u201d attempting to give the idea behind prabhav\u0101pyaya more accurately. How does one describe that which the cosmos originates from and then dissolves back into? The \u201cone form of existence\u201d is apparently Blavatsky\u2019s attempt to render or paraphrase the meaning of the Senzar term, which she then tries to clarify by giving its Sanskrit translation, prabhav\u0101pyaya. The evidence from the original Pur\u0101\u1e47a-sa\u1e43hit\u0101<\/i> gives us reason to believe that prabhav\u0101pyaya is in fact an early Sanskrit translation of the Senzar term. Moreover, it is perhaps even a direct descendant of the phonetic Senzar term, more a transformation than a translation of this term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cBook of Dzyan,\u201d stanza 1, verse 8, is given by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine (vol. 1, p. 46) as: \u201c8. Alone, the one form of existence stretched boundless, infinite, causeless, in dreamless sleep; and life pulsated unconscious in universal space, throughout that All-Presence which is sensed by the \u2018Opened Eye\u2019 of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-of-dzyan","category-creation-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prajnaquest.fr\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}