[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Re: pratiyogI-jnAna being mandatory for abhAva-jnAna

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Chandramouli ji.

//My understanding is different. Such a statement is not made by AS in
second mithyAtva-vichArah. Response of AS is to the objection raised by NM
proposing such a declaration. NM states that there is no other option, in
connection with which it presents several possibilities and discounts all
of them. Response of AS is that even if such
traikAlika-nishedha-pratiyogitA were to be accepted provisionally, still
there is scope for distinguishing between asat and mithyA by pointing out
the unique distinguishing feature ** तथापि क्वचिदप्युपाधौ सत्त्वेन
प्रतीत्यनर्हत्वम् अत्यन्तासत्त्वम् , शूक्तिरूप्ये प्रपञ्चे च बाधात् पूर्वं
नास्त्येवेति न तुच्छत्वापत्तिः । **.//

 AS says - इति चेन्मैवम् ; सर्वत्र त्रैकालिकनिषेधप्रतियोगित्वं यद्यपि
तुच्छानिर्वाच्ययोः साधारणम् ; तथापि क्वचिदप्युपाधौ सत्त्वेन
प्रतीत्यनर्हत्वम् अत्यन्तासत्त्वम् , शूक्तिरूप्ये प्रपञ्चे च बाधात् पूर्वं
नास्त्येवेति न तुच्छत्वापत्तिः ।

The SiddhAntI responds to opponent by declaring his position. I will share
the context and translation from advaitasiddhi.com.




*We now look at the siddhikAra's response to these arguments. He says:इति
चेन्मैवं if this is the argument, not so.स्वरूपेणैव
त्रैकालिकनिषेधप्रतियोगित्वस्य प्रपञ्चे शुक्तिरूप्ये चाङ्गीकारात् we hold
that the negation of the pratiyogi in all three periods of time is an
absolute negation - that is, neither the world nor the shell-silver are
existent in any of the three periods of time. How?तथाहि - शुक्तौ
रजतभ्रमानान्तरं अधिष्ठानतत्वसाक्षात्कारे रूप्यं नास्ति नासीन्नभविष्यतीति
स्वरूपेणैव, 'नेह नाने'ति श्रुत्या च प्रपञ्चस्य स्वरूपेणैव निषेधप्रतीते: -
after the illusion of silver seen in a shell is removed by the direct
knowledge of the shell, the substratum, the negation of silver is absolute
- it does not exist now, did not at any time in the past, nor will it at
any time in the future. In a similar fashion, the shruti which says "there
is no multiplicity here" negates the existence of the world absolutely.*






*The siddhikAra replies:- इति चेन्मैवम् not so;सर्वत्र
त्रैकालिकनिषेधप्रतियोगित्वं यद्यपि तुच्छानिर्वचनीया साधारणम् ; while the
absolute absence of an object in all time and space is common to both asat
and mithyA  तथापि क्वचिदप्युपाधौ सत्त्वेन प्रतीत्यनर्हत्वम्
अत्यन्तासत्त्वम् , asat is something that is incapable of being perceived
as existing in any locusतच्च शुक्तिरूप्ये प्रपञ्चे च बाधात् पूर्वं
नास्त्येवेति न तुच्छत्वापत्ति:  |  whereas that is not the case with regard
to shell-silver and the world before their sublation, thus their being asat
is not trueनच बाधात् पूर्वं शुक्तिरूप्यम् प्रपञ्चो वा सत्त्वेन न प्रतीयते |
as before their sublation, shell-silver and the world do appear to exist.*

As is clear from the above two citations of dvitIya-mithyAtva-vichArah, it
is accepted by siddhAntI as his first-choice theory ---- that ---- asat and
mithyA have sarvatra-traikAlika-nishedha-pratiyogitA. There is no question
of it being accepted provisionally. This is the primary siddhAnta.

I would request views of Venkatraghavan ji and Anant Chaitanya ji on the
comment by Chandramouli ji.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.