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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00161 Jul 2006

 
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avidhya a positive entity is argued through inference.

Next the advaitin shows that the avidhya is positive through
inference.The knowledge that is valid is preceded by a substance . This
substance is other than the previous non-existence of the knowledge and
covers the subject of the knowledge. This substance which is in the same
place as the knowledge is removable by the knowledge. This is the
positive ajnana. Hence avidhya is a positive substance removed by jnAna
rising from vedanthavAkyas such as 'thathvamasi' like the darkness is
removed when a brilliant light is brought in.

The advaitin proceeds to show that darkness, thamas, is a positive
substance to counter the objection 'AlokaabhAva mAthram cA rupadarsana
abhAvamathram va thamah;na dravyAntharam, thath katHam bhAvarupa ajnAna
sADHanE nidarsanathayA upanyasyatha, the darkness is the  absence of
light or non-perception of rupa and how can that be cited as an example
to prove the positive avidhya. Thamas  is a substance which is sometimes
thin and sometimes thick and it is perceived and lends itself to
expressions like 'thamah chalathi,the darkness moves and neelam
thamah,darkness is blue'etc. Also because it cannot be included among
other substances, namely, the five elements ,time soul, mind and
direction. [This has been refuted by the school of logicians already].

Ramanuja objects that positive ajnAna is not perceived by sense
perception in the experience 'aham ajnah, mam anyamcha na janami,' nor
it can be proved by argument. AjnAna must be of someone or some thing.
If 'I ' is known then the knowledge of svarupa of 'I' will remove the
ajnAna 'I do not know myself and others.' If the 'I' is not known, then
it cannot be perceived because it will not be known as to whom or of
whom or what it is about. Advaitin may reply that only the vivid
knowledge is opposed to avidhya but the knowledge of the person to whom
and of whom the avidhya exists is not vivid and hence it can co exist
with such knowledge.

This can be understood as follows:In the perception 'aham ajnah, mAm
anyam cha na jAnAmi' there is a knowledge of 'I' but it is not vivid. In
the case of rajjusarpa, the rope seen as a snake,the rope is vivid
knowledge but it is seen as 'idham,this' which can coexist with
ignorance of the rope.This ignorance projects an illusory perception of
a snake. The knowledge of the serpent or 'this' is not opposed to
ignorance, avidhya, of the knowledge of the rope.

Ramanuja says that this explanation applies to jnanapragabhAva,prior
non-existence of knowledge also. Before the knowledge arises there is
the absence of knowledge which is jnAnaprAgabhAva.Only the vivid
knowledge of the real nature is opposed to it and not the knowledge of
that where it abides and the subject of the knowledge.

To explain this we can again resort to the rope-snake example.Before the
rope is known there is the absence of the knowledge that it is rope,
which is removed when the knowledge or the rope dawns.So the prAgabhAva
of the jnAna that it is rope is opposed to the jnAna of the rope.But the
knowledge of the abode of jnana ,namely the rope, is  not vivid but seen
as 'this, which is the subject of  the knowledge which has not yet
arisen.So,says Ramanuja, ajnAna is not a positive entity but only the
absence of jnAna.

AjnAna must mean either the absence of jnAna, or other than jnAna or
opposed to jnAna. In all these cases it requires that the nature if 
jnAna should be known, says Ramanuja.'ajnAnamithi
jnAnAbhAvah;thadhanyah;thadvirOdhi vA, thrayANAm api
thatsvarupajnAnApekshA avasyAsrayaNeeyA.'

Advaitin contends citing the example of darkness that  it can be seen
even without knowing about light at all. But Ramanuja insists that when
thamas, darkness is known as the absence of light the knowledge of light
is a prerequisite. Moreover ajnAna is acknowledged as the absence of
knowledge by advaitin also when it is said to be removed by jnAna.
Henceavidhya is not a positive entity.





















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