Kalpanā is derived from the root - kalpanama + ना, and means – 'fixing', 'settlement', 'making', 'performing', 'doing', 'forming', 'arranging', 'decorating', 'ornamenting', 'forgery', 'a contrivance', 'device'. and also means – 'assuming anything to be real', 'fictional'. Suresvaracharya in his Taittirīyavārttika has used the term kalpanā to mean – 'inferior conception'. Vishnu Purana and Naradiya Purana define kalpanā as a two-termed relation which is a distinction between the contemplation and the object-to-be-contemplated. Badarayana has used the wordkalpanā only once in his composition, Brahma Sutras, but while translating Sri Govinda Bhāshya of Baladeva Vidyabhushana, a commentary on Vedānta sutras, this word has been translated by Srisa Chandra Vasu to mean – 'the creative power of thought, formation, creation ', which meaning is in the context of explainingPradhana purported to have been referred to by the word - ajā occurring in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad. Badarayana states:- Roer in his translation of the commentary of Shankara on Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has translated the word kalpanā as 'fictitious view', and upadhi , as 'fictitious attribute'. Shankara in his Brahma Sutra Bhāsya has interpreted this sutra as follows:- explaining that the word ajāneither indicates the form of a she-goat nor has it been used in the derivative sense of that which is unborn; what is said by the Shvetashvatara Upanishad is as an instruction about the materialsource of all things – moving and immobile, using a form of imagery - the analogy to a she-goat. Dignāga in his Pramāna-samuccya, tells us that amongst pratyaksha that has the particular for the object and anumāna that has only the universal cognisance, the former is free from kalpanā or 'conceptual construction'. Katha Upanishad tells us that virtual objects exist only during kalpanā-kāla i.e. during the period of imagination, owing to avidyā . And, according to Patanjali, kalpanā is more subjective than illusion and hallucination. Man is able to think because he has a perceiving and arranging manas which self-illuminated gives him chetnā and the faculties of pratyaksha , chintā , kalpanā, prayatna and chaitanya . The Vedic thinkers held the view that the universe is merely an idea, a kalpanā or projection of the mind of the creator; even the experience of birth and death by the Jiva is a kalpanā created by ignorance. Mental kalpanā is false superimposition on account of ignorance. However, the siddha , exclusively intent on attaining yoga with own self, and self-reliant, gains powers arising spontaneously as devoid of any ruse or ploy.
