[Advaita-l] Whether darkness is bhava - Vivarana Prameya Samgraha of Shri Vidyaranya

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Hari Om,

In Vivarana school, it is a well settled doctrine that darkness is not
merely abhava of light. In order to prove that in Vivaran Prameya Samgraha
("VPS"), Shri Vidyaranya gives following logic:-

If darkness were to be abhava, then it can be either
(a) aloka-matra-abhava OR
(b) aloka-vishesha-abhava OR
(c) sarva-aloka-abhava

I am quite convinced of his arguments on first and second. However, his
explanation for third one does not appear convincing. Let me explain his
logic. He says, if darkness were to be sarva-aloka-abhava then unless there
is sannidhana (bringing about) of sarva-aloka, darkness cannot be removed.

This is his argument which appears bizzare.

Let darkness be A1-abhava AND  A2-abhava AND A3-abhava .........AND
An-abhava where n is last type of aloka. Like surya-aloka-abhava AND
deepak-aloka -abhava AND lamp-aloka-abhava upto nth type of aloka-abhava.

If this is the premise then to remove darkness, we don't have to have the
sannindhana of A1 to An as claimed by V. There is a basic logic. ~(~A1 and
~A2 and ~An) = A1 or A2 or An... That is to say, the negation changes the
"and" to "or".

Thus, his statement that removal of sarva-aloka-abhava can only be achieved
by the sannidhana of sarva-aloka is incorrect. The removal of
sarva-aloka-abhava is by kinchit-aloka and not by sarva-aloka.

And thus his logic appears prima facie to be incorrect and inadmissible.

Views of learned members are welcome.

Regards,
Sudhanshu.