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

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Continued from last email:-

6.  Let us try to understand what exactly light is and what exactly it is
which is called as darkness. We all know that light is nothing but
electromagnetic waves which have different wavelengths. It is basically
energy which is in the forms of small packets called photons which have
different wavelengths (don't ask me as to how particle has wavelength). If
the photons are in the range of 380-740 nm AND they reach our eyes, we say
that there is light. If photons are above or below the range, then despite
light being there, we will say that light is not there. For eg, infrared
light or radio waves are light too, just that their wavelengths are higher.
Or UV lights with lower wavelengths. The light which we feel in daytime is
because of atmospheric scattering and not merely because of Sun. If we were
to go to outer space, we would see darkness all around despite Sun being
there in full glow. We will see the object near us but there will be no
surrounding light. AND if one were to place a black body beside us, we will
not see that at all unlike daytime on earth where we can pretty well see
the black object because there is light all around. Now there is light all
around in outer space also, but we won't be able to see a black body for
there will be no photons reaching our eyes after reflection.

7. Darkness is a feeling of our eyes when enough number of photons of the
visible spectrum range do not reach our eyes. If our eyes were to have more
number of rods like cats and dogs, we would have seen even in the so called
darkness without it having been destroyed by Aloka (आलोक-विनाशितस्य). And
if darkness were to be something positive which can be removed by Aloka
alone, then night-vision-glasses would not have helped. Both by
thermal-imaging capturing infrared radiation or by photo-cathodic
instruments, the photons without or within the visible range can be
amplified by conversion into electric signals and enough number of photons
can be ensured to fall on our eye so as to see in the darkness.

8. Energy is spread all around in space. Matter itself is another form of
energy. Energy is quantized as photons of different wavelengths. Just
because they are not in visible spectrum or just because they are not
falling on our eyes -- it does not mean that there is some positive stuff
outside.

Regards.
Sudhanshu