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

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Hari Om Venkatesh ji,

Pl see the attachment of my previous post wherein I have given the
screenshot. This does not seem to be import. There is darkness at this
place at this point of time. What is it? Whether it is aloka-matra-abhava
or aloka-vishesha-abhava or sarva-aloka-abhava . This is the question.
There is no such question of darkness in a house comprising five rooms.
That analogy does not appear to be apt here. Pl see the screenshot.

Regards.
Sudhanshu.

On Sat 4 May, 2019, 20:57 Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> I have not studied VPS but I think you may be misunderstanding it.
>
> There are 5 rooms in a house and a light in every room. At night when all
> lights are switched off there total darkness in the house. When 1 light is
> switched on there is no darkness in 1 room but darkness in 4 rooms. When 2
> lights are switched on there is no darkness in 2 rooms and darkness is in 3
> rooms. And so on. When all 5 lights are switched on there is no darkness in
> any room. Then only we can say there is no darkness in the house. Even when
> only one room has darkness we cannot say darkness is not there in the
> house.
>
> On Sat, May 4, 2019 at 6:07 PM Sudhanshu Shekhar via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > 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.
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> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
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