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Oppiliappan List Archive: Message 00163 Jun 2006

 
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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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