[Advaita-l] [advaitin] 'Dvaita accepts body-adhyasa'

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Oct 16, 2021 at 9:26 PM Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Vinodhji
> Thank you for your question. I understand Subbuji was highlighting how even
> dvaitin expositions don't deny adhyAsa of the body-mind and yet, (as
> Advaita points out), they don't see the consequences of
> I noticed that Subbuji indicated a brief answer along the idea of pramANas.
>
> In other words, if pramAtRtvaM is accepted as adhyasta and hence not
> absolutely real, then all objects (prameyas) including body and mind are
> unreal. Samkhyas don't see the implication of adhyAsa for the means of
> knowledge by which alone anything can be said to exist. If puruSha is
> discriminated from its false identification with prakRti, then subsequently
> there is no way ( by pramANas like pratyaxa and anumAna) to assert prakRti
> exists.


Yes, Raghav ji, that is the point. There are these two statements that all
accept: मानाधीना मेयसिद्धिः   लक्षणप्रमाणाभ्यां वस्तुसिद्धिः  -  The
validation of a knowable object, prameya, vastu, is dependent upon 1. the
means to know it, pramana and 2.the nature of the object, the information
of which, together with the operation of the pramana.

The Vedanta keeps before the aspirant the scenario where there is no
body-identification. That is, the Atma is taught as that which has had no
body identification; the virgin Atman, so to say.  From this Atman's
standpoint, there are no pramanas, means to know anything, since all
pramanas are, by default, situated in the body alone and nowhere else. So,
from the Vedantic Atman's point of view, there is no world that can be
validated since there are no pramanas at all.

Also, a pramaa, a valid knowledge, arises out of a pramana. A bhrama,
error, arises when the pramana, the right means of knowledge, is not used
to know the object.  Hence alone a snake seen in the locus of a rope, is
not a pramaa but a bhrama. From this it follows that the world is a
bhrama since no pramana has had a place.  It is interesting the BG 13th ch.
6th verse says: the ten plus one organs, pramanas, the five sense and five
motor organs plus the manas, antahkaranam, and the entire knowable world of
sound, smell, tough, form and taste, all belong to kshetram, the world.
So, the knowable world and the means to know it are all constituents of the
world, kshetram.  The kshetrajna, the Consciousness principle, is outside
this means and end duality.   Thus by the logic provided by the Vedanta,
the world, including the body-mind-organs complex, is unreal since these
are not established by any pramana.

Hence alone the Advaitins invoked the apaccheda nyaya of the purva mimamsa
in Vedanta: a person from birth believes in duality, the world, etc. When
he is exposed to the Vedanta he comes to know that the world is not and he
is actually the Atman.  The maxim here is: pUrvam pareNa baadhyate - the
latter knowledge annuls the earlier knowledge.  The earlier knowledge is
ignorance really, like the rope-snake, and the latter knowledge is the
yathArtha jnanam.

regards
subbu






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