[Advaita-l] Parmana

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2022, Anand N via Advaita-l wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> When we talk about the 6 Pramanas, where do emotions like love, anger or
> sensations like hunger, thirst etc land?
> Are they in the category of Pratyaksha?
> Are they Aparoksha?
> Can someone please elaborate more on this.

This is an old thread which I didn't have the chance to reply to at the 
time.  There is one element which I think should be mentioned but wasn't 
in that discussion.  Namely pramana is not just a means of knowledge but a 
means of, atleast potentially, knowing truth.  For example usage of 
eyesight is pratyaksha but if a person has cataracts they will not be able 
to accurately see so their observations are not pramanika.  A person who 
mistakes a cow with a gavaya is correctly using pratyaksha but is mistaken 
so it is pramanika but incomplete. It requires some other knowledge to be 
correct.

So the question is, are emotions capable of generating truth?  I think 
most darshans astika and nastika would reply no because emotions are 
subjective, turbulent and ill-defined.  On the other hand emotions do 
provide some kind of information so they are not meaningless.  But that 
meaning cannot be assigned a true or false value so that means they cannot 
be pramana without backup from some other pramana.

One possible counterpoint to this might be from kavyashastra.  I have very 
basic knowledge of this field but my understanding is that the 
theoreticians believe that one who has carefully cultivated the aesthetic 
sense (a suhrd) is capable of perceiving in a poem, play, story etc. rasa. 
This rasa (there are 9 altogether.) is an emotional state.  Do they 
consider rasa to be a pramana?  Someone who has studied more than me 
should explain further.

Many philosophers have linked aesthetics to philosophy.  For instance The 
famous Kashmiri Shaiva Abhinavagupta is also the author of Abhinavabharati 
on Bharat's Natyashastra and Lochana of Anandavardhanas Dhvanyaloka which 
is an important kavayashastra.  The North Indian Vaishnavas, Chaitanya, 
Vallabhacharya, Nimbarka, etc. also have elevated rasa to the highest 
position in their systems particularly the Shrngara or erotic rasa as 
applied to Krishna Bhagvan.  But atleast Vallabhacharya who I am the most 
familiar with has not as far as I know claimed that rasa is a pramana.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>