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Ikshana (Sanskrit:īkṣaṇa) is a noun which means sight, care and superintendence[1] but also refers to eye, sight, look, seeing, viewing, aspect, caring for, looking after, regarding.[2]
In theMahabharata,Brahma is said to have become the Ikshana (eye), in the form of this mobile and immobile universe, of all entities that took birth; in the phraseVrishbhekshana,Virishbha implies theVedas and ikshana, the eye.[3]Kalidasa, in the phrase मदिरेक्षणे appearing in passage II.72 of hisAbhigyanashakuntalam, has also used the word Ikshana to mean the eye, which phrase Sankara explains is –madira ('wine') as applied to the eye (ikshana), - eye as equivalent to 'beautiful',madirekhshane means the one whose eyes intoxicate like wine or is the wine-eyed.[4]
Ikshana is a technical term used inVedanta to show how creation took place by the beholding of Para-brahman as an intelligent and a personal act of the creator; it means revelation of the created.[5] Parabrahman is essentiallycitta who produces his self asShabda Brahman (Logos) byikshana ('beholding').[6]
Badarayana states:-
Adi Shankara, in his commentary on thissutra, states that the object ofikshana ('seeing') is the supreme Self,Brahman, and notHiranyagarbha, the inferior Brahman. He says that the termikshati-karma means the object covered by the act of seeing. The all-pervading entity (Purusa) that is to be seen can be seen to be "higher than the high one" meditated.[7]Pippalada tells Satyakama, son of Sibi, that he by theSama hymns is elevated to theBrahmaloka, he from thisjivanghata ('the Macrocosmic Soul') beholds the supreme Being – एतस्माज्जीवघ्नात्परात्परं पुरिशयं पुरुषुमीक्षति -Prashna Upanishad V.5.[8]
The statement –uho nama vi-tarkoktih pra-vicharekshanatmakah, the termsVitarka andTarka are used interchangeably,tarka occurs after speech, mind and prana have been restrained immediately before Samadhi, vitarka consists of advanced thought and observation (ikshana); it is through discernment (uha) that one leaves the lower plane ofsavikalpa and gets uplifted.[9]
The Vedic concept oftapas and the Upanishadic concept of ikshana to the effect that consciousness and force are ultimately the same and every will has an aspect of force, helpedSri Aurobindo to conclude that the fact is only a partial reflection of the Idea which has created it and that it is the idea which expresses itself in matter and takes to itself bodies, and formulate the 'Theory of ideas as forces'.[10]
It was throughekacittekshana-samyukta-prajna the supreme perfect knowledge was realized (abhisambodha) byGautama Buddha, that convertedBoddhisattva toBuddha;ekacittekshana refers toPrajna exercised in unison with 'one-thought-viewing' when there is no separation between 'knower' and the 'known', all are viewed in one thought and enlightenment is the outcome.[11]
Ikshana.