[Advaita-l] Partlessness of Brahman and Maya

[Venkatraghavan S]

Sudhanshu ji,

Pl cite reference for nirguNatva of guNas. That will solve many issues for
> me.
>
There is some evidence of this within sAnkhya literature.

nirguNa can mean two things - the absence of sattva, rajas, tamo guNa-s or
the absence of attributes such as rUpa, rasa, gandha etc.

Now, we cannot hold that guNa-s such as sattva etc. have other guNa-s such
as sattva, etc. in them, because that would lead to infinite regress. With
respect to attributes like rUpa, rasa, gandha etc, we can turn to  sAnkhya
kArika and its bhAShya. The tenth kArika is as follows:
हेतुमदनित्यमव्यापि सक्रियमनेकमाश्रितं लिङ्गम्।
सावयवं परतन्त्रं व्यक्तं विपरीतमव्यक्तम् ।।

Gaudapadacharya in his sAnkhya kArika bhAShya says that the word
विपरीतमव्यक्तम्
in the kArika above leads to avyakta (= pradhAna) itself being
niravayava . Interestingly,
he does so on the basis of the absence of shabda, sparsha, rUpa, rasa,
gandha in pradhAna (अवयवा: शब्दस्पर्शरूपरसगन्धा:...तथा सावयवं व्यक्तं,
निरवयवमव्यक्तम् | न हि शब्दस्पर्शरसरूपगन्धा: प्रधाने सन्ति |) . Now, these
avayavA-s are what the naiyyAyika refers to as guNa-s .

It is not possible for us to differentiate between the guNa-s of sattva,
rajas and tamas from pradhAna (प्रधानमपि गुणैर्न भिद्यते, अन्ये गुणा:,
अन्यत् प्रधानमेवं विवेकं याति says gauDapAdAchArya in the next kArika's
bhAShya), hence as pradhAna does not have those attributes, it follows that
guNa-s also do not have those attributes.


> Can niravayatva itself be held to be sufficient to proclaim nirguNatva?
>

So, in answer to the above question, in sAnkhya, the absence of guNa-s such
as shabda, sparsha, rUpa, rasa and gandha is the basis for pradhAna being
called niravayava.


>  I would like your view regarding the usage of word nirguNa in Vedanta.
> Does it have nyAya-guNa connotation or sAmkhya-guNa connotation or both?
>
Both.
In the BGB 13.12, shankarAchArya argues that Brahman does not have
guNa-s (in the nyAya sense of attributes inhering in a substance) and thus
is beyond the reach of words - ‘शुक्लः’ ‘कृष्णः’ इति वा गुणतः...नापि गुणवत्
, येन गुणशब्देन उच्येत, निर्गुणत्वात् ।
In BGB 13.14, shankarAchArya says that Brahman is nirguNa in the sense of
the absence of sAmkhya guNas  निर्गुणं सत्त्वरजस्तमांसि गुणाः तैः वर्जितं

Regards
Venkatraghavan