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

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Hari Om,

In this context, it is submitted that we have seen that pratiyogI-jnAna is
a mandatory requirement for abhAva-jnAna, except where the vastu itself is
vishesha-abhAva. Thus,  x-abhAva-jnAna mandatorily requires x-jnAna except
only those cases wherein x is vishesha-abhAva such as pot-abhAva.

In this context, it is noted that this basic rule - which is the
cornerstone of NyAya and VedAnta - is disputed by SSS ji as follows in his
work - "Heart of Shri Shankara".

*२८. प्रतियोगिज्ञानं नापेक्षितमभावज्ञाने सर्वत्र*

यत्तूच्यते प्रतियोगिज्ञानमन्तरा न शक्योऽभावानुभव इति । तदसत्
दृष्टान्तभावाद्विपक्षेऽपि । यथा - इह समाजे नास्ति कश्चिदेस्किमो नामा
विदेशीयो जन इति केनाप्युक्ते सत्याजन्मनोऽप्यदृष्टचरतादृशजनोऽपि
व्युत्पित्सुर्यदि जानीते सभ्यास्सर्वे कार्णाटिका इति निस्संशयम्, तदा
स्यादेवास्यापि पुरुषस्यानाकलितप्रतियोगिनोऽपि तादृशविलक्षणजनाभावज्ञानम् |
तस्मान्नेदं तन्त्रं यत् प्रतियोगिज्ञानमवश्यमेवापेक्ष्यतेऽभावज्ञान इति ।


*28. Knowledge of something as existent is not invariably required to
recognize its non-existence *

The opponent is wrong to maintain that there cannot be experience of the
non-existence of anything without knowledge of that thing (so that there
could not be absence of knowledge in dreamless sleep:' in dreamless sleep
one must have knowledge of positive Ignorance, cp. Viv. p. 74, quoted M.V.
p.756). For there are examples showing that it can. Supposing it was said,
`These is no Eskimo in our society', then that would be understood by
somebody who had never seen an Eskimo in his life, provided that he was
sure that all citizens of this province were Karnatics. He would then be
sure of the absence of people of different races (such as Eskimos), even
though he might never have seen one. So there is no universal rule that for
knowledge of the nun-existence of anything there must always be knowledge
of that thing.

*My views*

This is the argument provided by SSS ji to reject the cornerstone of NyAya
and VedAnta regarding mandatory pratiyogI-jnAna for abhAva-jnAna.


He says that if Mr A

a. has never seen an Eskimo in his life. AND

b. knows for sure that all persons in his society are kArNAtika.


then


he can have the EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana-abhAva-jnAna.


And, this, as per him, proves that pratiyogI-jnAna is not required for
abhAva-jnAna.


This argument of his is incorrect. How?


In  EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana-abhAva-jnAna, the pratiyogI is
EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana. The person living in a housing society, where
there are all KArNAtiks, has never seen an Eskimo in his life. However, it
cannot be said that he does not possess EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana-jnAna.


This is so because he knows that such an EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana is a
foreigner. And since all persons in the society are kArnAtiks, which are
non-foreigners, he can pretty well say that there is
EskImo-nAmA-videshIya-jana-abhAva in the society.


Thus, the case mentioned by SSS ji is an example of --
*एस्कीमो-नामा-विदेशीय-जन-निष्ठ-विदेशीयता-अवच्छिन्न-प्रतियोगिता-निरूपित-अभाव*.
Thus, the person does possess एस्कीमो-नामा-विदेशीय-जन-jnAna with the
pratiyogitA delimited by videshIyatA. Hence, the statement by SSS ji that -
there is no pratiyogI-jnAna and yet there is presence of abhAva-jnAna - is
completely wrong.


Such statement could be made by SSS ji because he did not appreciate the
concept of pratiyogitA-avachchhedaka. And thus, not paying attention to
this basic concept, his entire theory went astray.


Regards.

Sudhanshu Shekhar.