[Advaita-l] Difficulty with Akhandakara Vrtti

[Anand Hudli]

Shri Venkatraghavan wrote:
>A) svarUpa bheda the non difference of the substratum, the
contradicting-feature-removed Devadatta, that is common to the terms "this"
and "that" in the sentence; and
>B) tAdAtmya is the "simple identity before the apparent differences are
resolved" between the terms "this" and "that" - i.e there are many common
features, implying identity, but there are >certain differences in the
unresolved "this" and "that"?

Yes, svarUpa abheda could be described as non-difference of the substratum,
although I prefer to call it non-difference of the essential nature, to
explain better laukika examples such as "this is that Devadatta". Actually,
tAdAtmya is used in different senses by advaitins. For example, advaitins
hold that there is an identity (tAdAtmya) between an object and its
attributes. Or, they could speak of AdhyAsika tAdAtmya, the identity, due
to superimposition, between "this" and "silver" in the erroneous cognition
"this is silver."

So it is clear that tAdAtmya is not precisely the relation between terms
such as "tat" and "tvam" in a nirvikalpaka cognition.

Anand