[Advaita-l] Theory of Language: Mimamsa, Advaita and Vyakarana 3 of 3

[Siva Senani Nori]

Sir
The one underlying reality is Brahman alone of the form of Sabda (and it may be noted that Brahman is not said to be of the form of Artha or the sambandha between Sabda and Artha), which is seen as a multiplicity of Sabdas, Arthas and their relation. When the three are thus seen, they all have the same level of Reality. It might be noted that like Advaita has two levels of Brahman, SabdAdvaita has four levels of Sabda. Further, Artha itself can refer to bauddhArtha and bAhyArtha. Now, the term bauddhArtha begs a question: whose buddhi? At the plane of vyavahAra, it is the speaker's mind, when we have the speaker as the reference; it is the listener's mind, if he is the reference. In the ultimate view, only one entity is. It is consciousness itself and a separate buddhi of this entity is not spoken of. So both Sabda and Artha become one entity and tAdAtmya becomes their sambandha. Thus, we have to pick our way carefully amongst these labels. Sastra's teachings are true and consistent at all levels, but we will get confused if we mix up the adjuncts.
It might be interesting to note YogasUtra 3.17 here:
शब्दार्थप्रत्ययानाम् इतरेतर-अध्यासात् सङ्करः तत्प्रविभाग-संयमात् सर्वभूतरुतज्ञानम्There is mixing up of Sabda, Artha and J~nAna due to mutual superimposition, by having the control to differentiate them one gets the knowledge of sounds made by all creatures.
Here, the Yoga position is what is called भेददृष्टिः, i.e. Sabda, Artha and J~nAnam are different from each other. Note that even for Yoga, artha is bauddhArtha only (शब्दज्ञानानुपाती वस्तुशून्यो विकल्पः॥1.7, योगसूत्राणि - Vikalpa, the concept of artha, follows the cognition of Sabdas and does not have any external object as its content). Vyakarana accommodates both bhedavivakshA and abhedavivakshA and recognizes that speakers resort to one or other depending on what they want to convey. The equivalent terminology in Advaita is vyAvahArika view and pAramArthika view.
RegardsN. Siva Senani



 
      From: H S Chandramouli <hschandramouli at gmail.com>
 To: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
 Sent: Sunday, 13 December 2015 1:17 PM
 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Theory of Language: Mimamsa, Advaita and Vyakarana 3 of 3
   
Sri Siva Senani Ji,
As a clarification to my earlier post, when it is said " being the entity seen as three " , do the three enjoy the same level of Reality as Brahman or do they enjoy a different level of Reality ?
Regards
Chandramouli