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

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Raghav ji.


//I remember reading of  the example.
I walk in to an empty room. I can assert that "there is no parnassus
in that room".(even without knowing what parnassus is.) Because I know
that parnassus is an object (viShaya). And all of us have pre-existing
knowledge
of "viShayatva",  that any viShaya will have some shape, dimensions etc.

And therefore viShayatva-abhAva in that room can be asserted. So
even without knowing that parnassus is a type of marsh grass, I can get
the knowledge of parnassus-abhAva.

The pratiyogitA for the abhAva jnAna is not for paranassus-tva , rather
it is for viShayatva which inheres in parnassus.
Or viShayatva (i.e. , parnassus-niShTha-viShayatva) is the
pratiyogitA-avacchedaka for knowledge of parnassus-abhAva.//

I have a few observations on this.

Suppose I have no clue as to what paranassus is, how can I say there is no
paranassus in the "empty" room? I mean, paranassus can pretty well mean
"space" or some invisible bacteria in the room, or electric or magnetic
field, or the heat coming from my own body or whatever.

Despite the room being "empty", there are infinite vishayAs out there in
that "empty room". At least room-space is there. And hence, infinite parts
of room-space are there. Paranassus can mean any of that.

So, if I have "no clue" what a paranassus is, I think it is just not
possible to aver paranassus-abhAva in whichever manner.

The vishayatA-avachchhinna-pratiyogitA-nirUpita-abhAva will be valid only
if there is no vishaya in the "empty room". But such a situation is beyond
our mind. The usual empty-room will not fall in that category, I think.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.