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

[V Subrahmanian]

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Antaryami Brahmanam, there is a long list
of entities who are the 'body' as though of Atman/Brahman which the latter
impels, does niyamanam.  In this list is one entity 'tamas'.

बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यम्तृतीयोऽध्यायःसप्तमं ब्राह्मणम्मन्त्र १३

………यस्तमसि तिष्ठंस्तमसोऽन्तरो यं तमो न वेद यस्य तमः शरीरं यस्तमोऽन्तरो
यमयत्येष त आत्मान्तर्याम्यमृतः ॥ १३ ॥ ………


The Antaryami, stationed in Tamas, but Tamas does not know this Antaryami
for whom Tamas is body, which the Antaryami controls from inside...know
this to be your Atman.


Just summing up this long list of 'bodies' that the Antaryami (Brahman)
'controls', Shankara says:
बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यम्तृतीयोऽध्यायःसप्तमं ब्राह्मणम्मन्त्र १५ - भाष्यम्

………अग्नौ, अन्तरिक्षे, वायौ, दिवि, आदित्ये, दिक्षु, चन्द्रतारके, आकाशे,
यस्तमस्यावरणात्मके बाह्ये तमसि, तेजसि तद्विपरीते प्रकाशसामान्ये —
इत्येवमधिदैवतम् अन्तर्यामिविषयं दर्शनं देवतासु ।………


Shankara takes the entities that he enumerates above as 'adhidaivatam',
that is the beings in the cosmos. Like fire, outer space, air, heavens,
sun, directions, moon, stars and tamas that envelops the outside and in the
generalized light that is the opposite of tamas...


In yet another mantra in the Br.Up. itself, Shankara while commenting,
observes tamas as both the 'outside' (baahya) and the inner, adhyatmika,
ignorance....

स होवाच गार्ग्यो य एवायं छायामयः पुरुष एतमेवाहं ब्रह्मोपास इति स
होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मा मैतस्मिन्संवदिष्ठा मृत्युरिति वा अहमेतमुपास इति स य
एतमेवमुपास्ते सर्वं हैवास्मिंल्लोक आयुरेति नैनं पुरा कालान्मृत्युरागच्छति ॥
१२ ॥
 भाष्यम्
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Brha?page=2&id=BR_C02_S01_V12_B01&hlBhashya=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF#bhashya-BR_C02_S01_V12>

छायायां बाह्ये तमसि अध्यात्मं च आवरणात्मकेऽज्ञाने हृदि च एका देवता, तस्या
विशेषणम् — मृत्युः ; फलं सर्वं पूर्ववत् , मृत्योरनागमनेन रोगादिपीडाभावो
विशेषः ॥

In the above, especially the 'outside' tamas, we have the shruti pramana
for 'tamas' being a bhaava padaartha like sun, moon, etc.

By extension, we may infer that in srishTi, like all objects of the cosmos
such as the sun, moon....tamas also gets created and remains in the cosmos
only to manifest whenever the right conditions arise.  So is light.  This
is only my theory.

warm regards
subbu



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