Budhyamāna
Budhyamāna, “the one coming to know”
Grammar: present participle (middle voice) of the root budh (to wake, to know): “one who is coming to know”, “awakening”.
Meaning: in the Sāṅkhya teaching, the stage between the apratibuddha (the unawakened) and the buddha (the awakened): the stage of the mumukshu, the seeker of moksha, who inquires and practises yoga for the sight of the ātmā.
In the scriptures: the word belongs to the mokshadharma teaching that Vasishṭha Maharshi gives King Karāla Janaka in the last chapters of the Brahma Purāṇa.
The avyakta. Vasishṭha says that the avyakta, the unmanifest, is prabuddha (awakened) and budhyamāna (awakening), while the manifest kshara tattva is aprabuddha. Janaka answers that he has not understood the illustration of prabuddha, budhyamāna and aprabuddha (Chapter 243).
Between the two. Three tattvas are discerned in the Sāṅkhya darśana: buddha and apratibuddha, akshara and kshara, and between the two the budhyamāna. The buddha is the paramārtha tattva whose nature is awakening; the apratibuddha is the māyā tattva, the root of aparā prakṛti; and the budhyamāna is the stage of inquiry of the mumukshu, by śravaṇa (hearing), manana (reflection) and the rest, and the stage of practising the sādhana of yoga in the wish for ātma-darśana. In the Yoga darśana, Vasishṭha adds, only the stages of budhyamāna-tva and buddha-tva are set out, as stages of experience (Chapter 244).
The budhyamāna jīva. The unborn root tattva, for the sake of play, takes on modifications, and the jīva, imagining himself in the form of many tattvas, does not know his true state. When he is taught “this is the form of the avyakta tattva”, in the stage of the sādhana of knowledge he is called budhyamāna, one receiving instruction and knowledge. But even while being taught, he fails to recognise that the avyakta, which appears saguṇa, is truly nirguṇa; when he comes to know it as nirguṇa, he is called pratibuddha. In the budhyamāna stage the jīva is covered by mamakāra, the sense of “mine”. Vasishṭha closes: “O sinless King Janaka, I have thus told you, by the method of Sāṅkhya, the marks of the buddha, the budhyamāna and the apratibuddha” (Chapter 245).
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 243–245
Related terms: Buddha · Apratibuddha · Mumukshu · Śravaṇa · Manana · Mamakāra
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 243–245