[Advaita-l] Tamas, physical darkness, is a positive object

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Raviji,

On Tue, Jul 25, 2017 at 5:22 PM, Ravi Kiran via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Interestingly, only light (tejas) is listed under dravya (substance), but
> not darkness (tamas), in tarka sangraha.
>
​True. In Padakrtya, a doubt is raised: there is a saying that the
darkness/shadow moves. नीलस्तमश्चलति। They also say that being touched with
someone's shadow is auspicious while that of another is inauspicious. The
answer given is: तेजसः अभावः तमः।

That said, what about अभाव itself? Its a पदार्थ। So you can say that the
तमः is that which is an अभावपदार्थ ! :)

In any case, its not as bad for Vedantins, since we use नञ् as विरोधार्थे
नञ् to result in अविद्या। Else, we should have no objection to Shunyavadins
since अभावरूप शून्यत्वम् can also cause संसार then!! Still, we do not
really insist on भावरूपा, but we say it is not अभावरूपा। It can be said as
यत्किञ्चिद् भावरूपा।

​gurupAdukAbhyAm
,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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