[Advaita-l] Nyayasudha Objections 1

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 2:30 AM, Srinath Vedagarbha via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> Correct, that is the case only if there is no pada in the dictionary which
> denotes vastu river in its primary meaning. But it was not the case here as
> we have pada "gangA". This is the issue in case of Brahman as we have no
> single pada which is capable of denoting the artha in its primary meaning.
>

The Veda itself resorts to 'lakṣaṇam-s' (not lakṣaṇā) when it uses the term
'Brahma'. For example, in the Taittiriya Upanishad, it says:

 यतो वाइमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । येन जातानि जीवन्ति । यत्प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति
। तद्विजिज्ञासस्व । तद्ब्रह्मेति ।

And  सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म . Thus, without such lakṣaṇam-s it is
impossible to know what the word 'Brahma' means.

>
>
> If I understand correctly, this is the gist of dvaitin's interpretation of
> sUtra "Om ikshayetE na aShabdam Om" -- meaning Brahman is not
> aShabda/avAchya because of hEtu "it is known". Given that Brahamn cannot be
> known by pratyaksha and anumAna, it leads to only option Aagama. Since
> aagma is shabda based, hence it is not correct to say Brahamn is avAchya by
> all pada-s in their mukhyArtha.
>

Even here, Brahman is denoted *only* through the function of 'īkṣaṇa'
(deliberation) even though the Veda teaches that It is niṣkriyam. In the
first case, Brahman is denoted through the function of jagat srishti, etc.
and by indicating that Brahman is not asatya, not jaḍa and not antavat.
Hence, the Veda itself resorts to the method of superimposing on Brahman
 some or the other function or attribute in order to enable us to
comprehend the word 'Brahma.'.  Without those 'add on' s there is no way
the Veda can use any word to indicate the vastu, whether it calls it by the
name Brahma, Chaturtham, Param, etc.  That such is only the means to denote
Brahman is also known to the Veda as it also teaches: na tatra vāk
gacchati' (kenopanishat), yatoi vācho nivartante, (Taittiriya) etc.

>
> /sv
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