[Advaita-l] Partlessness of Brahman and Maya

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Jun 20, 2019 at 12:22 AM Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> 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.
>

Thanks for this very informative post, Venkat ji.  Is the term 'nirguna'
present in Nyaya, Sankhya, Mimamsa?  I am asking because, non-advaitins
generally hold 'nirguna' to mean 'absence of despicable traits/attributes
in Brahman (Vishnu).'

warm regards
subbu



> 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
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