अवस्थानम् - Avasthāna

 

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Blog author Jayaraman Mahadevan

 

अवस्थानम् - Avasthāna

Etymology

अव+स्था+ल्युट् = अवस्थानम्

ava+sthā+lyuṭ = avasthānam

 

The prefix is ava. It indicates[1]दशा daśā – the state. 

The root word is sthā that means गतिनिवृत्तिः gatinivṛttiḥ - absence of movement

The suffix is lyuṭ that is used to indicate bhāva – the act of. The suffix is added by the grammatical rule ल्युट् lyuṭ ca (aṣṭādhyāyī 3.3.115).

The derivative statement for the word would be अवस्थीयते इति अवस्थानम् - avasthīyate iti avasthānam – the act, the state of staying or lack of movement is avasthāna.

Lexicon The word is not found in amarakośa

 

Textual Occurrences - In Yoga texts

Yoga-sūtras

There is a lonely reference to this term here. It is as follows - 

तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम् .

tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam .. 1.3 .. – The Consciousness is established (avasthana) in its own form during Yoga. 

 One can find three set of inputs from the traditional Samskrita commentaries on this term. They are as follows - 

1) अवस्थितिर्विद्यमानातेत्यर्थः  - योगसिद्धान्तचन्द्रिका 

avasthitirvidyamānātetyarthaḥ - yogasiddhāntacandrikā

 avasthiti - vidyamānā - existence 

 

 2)अवस्थानम्  - स्थितिः - भोजः, सदाशिवब्रह्मेन्द्रः, मणिप्रभा, चन्द्रिका
 
avasthānam - sthitiḥ - bhojaḥ, sadāśivabrahmendraḥ, maṇiprabhā, candrikā

 avasthānam - sthitiḥ - just absence of movement 


3) अवस्थानं, अव सर्वत्र विष्ठितं, विशेषेण स्थितम् - योगवल्ली 

avasthānaṃ, ava sarvatra viṣṭhitaṃ, viśeṣeṇa sthitam - yogavallī

ava+viṣṭhita -   refers to everywhere being specially established (as with individuals with uniqueness)

Bhagavad-gītā & Haṭha-yoga-pradīpikā – The word is not found in both these texts. 

 

Observations 

As can be seen from the evidences above - this is term specific to Yoga-sūtras. And even in this text it has appeared just once. The changeless - state of the consciousness - when the activities of the citta die down, is what is intended through this word.  

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