[Advaita-l] Is the idea of 'anAditva' logical?

[Shyam]

Pranams Subbuji
I am on travel and hence unable to participate in this and related discussions.
What I would suggest in regards to your well thought-out poser would be to consider a) whether time itself is an entity; b) if so does it have a origin? and c) if so, when does time originate?

A careful consideration to these aspects may be helpful in arriving at an conceptual appreciation of anaditva.

Hari OM
Shri Gurubhyo namah
Shyam

On Jun 29, 2012, at 14:09, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> We are, or have, engaged in a discussion on the logicality of concepts
> like 'apauruSheyatva',  'shabda/vAkya nityatva', 'prAmANya' etc. in
> respect to Veda.  The fundamental idea of this discussion being the
> 'illogicality' of these concepts in the face of modern scientific
> developments, theory of evolution, etc. The hope is that if we are
> able to establish the logicality of these concepts, it would make the
> modern-educated entrants to Vedanta feel more at ease as they will be
> pursuing something that their intellects happily agree with, without
> protesting.
> 
> Yet another such 'troublesome' concept is the idea of 'anAditva'.  The
> really enquiring mind will always tend to look at the origins of
> everything encountered in the universe.  That it makes sense that
> there has to be a beginning and it would be more enlightening if one
> knows that beginning with a fair degree of exactitude.  In the face of
> this attitude, the Vedantic concept of 'anAdi' is bound to be very
> disturbing to an aspirant.  Take anything, the jagat, the jiva,
> Ishwara, Brahman, Veda, avidyA, prakRti, kAla, samsara, bandha,
> everything is admitted to be anAdi.  No beginning in time is admitted
> with reference to all these.  While on the one hand a beginning is
> essentially expected to be there for every 'object', how does one go
> with this 'anAdi' concept?
> 
> In the Gauda pAda kArikaa, the anAdi concept is analyzed and attacked.
> In the BSB somewhere Shankara calls it 'andha paramparA'  when it
> comes to the bIjAnkura nyAya, the seed-sprout chain to explain the
> cause-effect relationship chain with reference to the body and karma.
> Which came first is impossible to determine as karma is impossible
> without the body and the body does not come without karma preceding
> it.  While the Vedantin himself is, at a stage, not happy with this
> idea, how will the thinking modern intellect view this concept?  The
> unpleasant feature is that the very entering and pursuing Vedanta
> makes acceptance, at some or the other level,of this concept. Even in
> the EkajIva construct, it is stated that all the above entities are
> admitted to be 'anAitvena kalpita'.  Albeit its apavAda,
> rejection/negation, will come later, yet its acceptance is inevitable
> in the early stages.  How does the scientific mind take this?
> 
> Members may present their thoughts on the topic.
> 
> Regards,
> subrahmanian.v
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