How could this avidhya be eradicated? 'asyAscha avidhyAyAh
nirviseshachinmAthrabrahmAthmaikathva vijAnEna nivrtthim
vadhanthi,'says Ramanuja. The nivrtthi, removal of avidhya has been
postulated by the advaithin to be caused by the knowledge of the
identity of the Atman with the Brahman, the undifferentiated
consciousness.Sruthi texts like 'na punarmrthyavE thadhEkam
pasyathi,'(Chan.7-26-2),he who sees the One is not subject to death ,
meaning that he attains immortality, 'brahma vedha brahmaiva
bhavathi,'(Mund.3-2-9 one who knows Brahman becomes
Brahman, 'thameEva vidhithvA athimrthyum Ethi,' Knowing Brahman thus
one transcends death. Here the word mrthyu means refers to avidhyA.
The knowledge that Brahman is nirvisEsha chinmAthra is attained by
the texts like' sathyam jnAnam anantham brahma,'(tait.Ana.1-1)
Brahman is existence, knowledge and infinity,'vijnAnam Anandham
brahma,' Brahman is consciousness and bliss. The identity of Atman
with Brahman is declared by the texts like 'thathvamasi.' The
suthrakAra also says 'AtmEthithoopagacchanthigrAhayanthicha,' the
texts acknowledge Brahman as the self and teach others also to
realise it as such.
After citing the testimony of the vedas the advaitin can establish
the destruction of avidhya by the knowledge of the identity of the
individual self with Brahman through yukthi, argument
It may be argued that the direct perception of the diversity of the
world cannot be sublated by the scriptural texts. In the illusion of
the rope as a snake mere knowledge that it is only a snake is enough
to destroy the illusion. But it is a case of one perception being
sublated by another whereas here perception is said to be sublated by
sasthra which is a different pramANa, means of knowledge, altogether.
One pramANa can be sublated by another if the latter is stronger. For
instance when you hear that there is a fire this knowledge through
inference may be sublated by perception that there is no fire which
becmes the stronger means of knowledge. But here it could be objected
that sruthi is weaker than perception because it needs to be
validitated by perception.
Advaitin in answer to this argument says that the flame of the lamp
appears to be one through perception but by inference it is
understood to be not so.The flame is continously produced and hence
gives the appearence of one single flame.So here the prathyaksha
which is stronger is sublated by the weaker pramANa. The criterion is
not whether the pramANa is weak or strong but only whether it is
contaminated by defect. In the case of the flame perception is
affected by the defect of the eye in being unable to see the
different flames.Similarly when there is a conflicting evidence
thriough different means of knowledge the one which can be explained
otherwise, anyathA siddham , that it is due to some defect, is
sublated by the one which cannot be explained away like that,
ananyathA siddham. Hence the perception of diversity of the universe
which is due to dosha of avidhya is sublated by the knowledge arising
out of sasthra, of the undifferentiated Brahman.
An objection may be raised against this stand of the advaitin that if
the sasthras were free of defects how can the injunctions on karma
like 'jyothishtomEna svargakAmo yajEtha,' one who wishes to attain
svarga should perform jyothishtoma sacrifice, can be dismissed by
those prescribing the spiritual practices for Moksha? Advaitin says
that the texts about karma are sublated by those about Brahman not
because they are defective but because they are anyathAsiddha, that
is, they can be shown to have results that are transitory while the
latter are not so,ananyathAsiddha. Even among the vedantavakyas,
those about SaguNabrahman are sublated by those about
Nirgunabrahman.The saguNa texts serve the purpose of attributing
qualities to Brahman so that it could be sublated by the nirguNa
texts, which are stronger. The argument given for proving that the
NirguNa texts are stronger is that, if they are not, then after
attributing qualities to Brahman there will not be any meaning for
the NirguNa texts. Therfore Brahman is in reality undifferentiated
consciousness.
.
.
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