[Advaita-l] Is difference known by perception?

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, May 7, 2019 at 9:22 PM Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Srinath ji
> You are making a mistake in assuming that the knowledge revealed by one
> pramANa cannot later on be contradicted by another pramANa.
>
> When two pramANa-s clash there is no rule that one will always overrule the
> other.
>
> In case Shruti talks of agni as sheetaH , there pratyaxa is accepted and
> arthAntara is looked for in interpreting Shruti.
>
> When the modern scientific nihilists deny that consciousness exists etc .,
> there Shruti overruled anumAna etc by showing the latter to be fallacious.
> (This needs efforts of course.)
>
> No knowledge is final . It can always be overruled by subsequent pramANas.
> This is true for all pramANas upto the Vedic karma kANDam.
>
> The only exception is Advaita GYAnam which is uncobtradictabke once it
> arises, since it shows the very framework of pramAtravam and the
> pramAtr-pramANa-prameya tripuTi to be mithyA. Therefore no subsequent
> pramANa vyApAram can sublate or contradict advitIya brahmAtma GYANam.
>

The last that you have said is the end part of the 4th sutra bhashya where
Shankara cites an early advaitin whom later scholars have identified as
Sundara Pandya who has written on Purva Mimamsa too.

Also, the PM 'apaccheda nyaya' has been invoked by Advaitins to show that
the pramana that gave a certain knowledge first is negated/overruled by a
later pramana.  Hence pratyaksha that ruled in a person's life until he
comes to the shruti (vedanta) is contradicted by the shruti pramana.
pUrvam pareNa baadhyate.

Also, Sri Vidyaranya in the Panchadashi 2.34 says:

चोद्यं वा परिहारो वा क्रियतां द्वैतभाषया ।

अद्वैतभाषया चोद्यं नास्ति नापि तदुत्तरम् ॥ ३४॥

Questioning and answering can happen only through the medium of bheda,
dvaita. In the realm of Advaita there is neither question nor an answer.

This is the stance of Advaitins. All comparing, vichara, viveka, sattaa
travidhya vichaara, etc. have to happen in the dvaita bheda language alone.
That is not any shortcoming of abheda vaadins. From the Paramarthika abheda
advaita realm, however, the earlier viveka, vichara, comparison using
bheda, etc. are all negated wholesale. So the mithya
vichara/viveka/comparison, etc. are sublated by the satya advaita
nishprapancha absolute drishti. Gaudapada's paraphrasing the upanishadic
verse: na nirodho......depicts this idea alone.

regards
subbu

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