[Advaita-l] [advaitin] The Upanishad and Shankara hold 'tamas' darkness, to be a 'thing.'

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Subbu ji.

Indeed it is a settled principle of Advaita vedAnta that the physical
darkness is not merely absence of light. It has been discussed in great
detail in texts.

Here one important thing which can be mentioned is the following - the
creation of darkness is not through panchabhUtAs but it is directly from
mAyA, immediate and spontaneous. Chitsukhi mentions it following VivaraNa.
(ChitsukhI - page 54 -
https://archive.org/details/chitsukhiyogindrananda/page/n97/mode/2up)

Further, it does appear prima facie a bit hard to a modern educated person
to accept that darkness is some material thing like table and chair. I also
had struggled a lot with this concept.

However, due analysis resolves the issue.

Further, the drishTi-srishTi-vAda makes it crystal clear to understand that
darkness is triguNAtmaka avidyA-kArya.

The darkness that we see in dream is not abhAva of dream-light.
Dream-darkness is as much real/tangible/illusory as is dream-light. Both
are same.

Waking being same as dream, waking-darkness has to be on equal footing as
waking-light, which inc turn has to be on equal footing with
dream-light/darkness.

That is why one of the most useful feature used in VedAnta to decide the
mithyAtva is that of drishyatva. BhAshyakAra proves in MK 1.2.

जाग्रद्दृश्यानां भावानां वैतथ्यमिति प्रतिज्ञा ।
दृश्यत्वादिति हेतुः ।
स्वप्नदृश्यभाववदिति दृष्टान्तः ।

It is such a powerful anumAna presented by AchArya. It has the potential to
transform our daily living completely into a meditative life.

Is it drishya? Yes? Then, it is mithyA. On the analogy of dream.

Darkness is seen, just as the darkness of dream is seen. And is hence
mithyA and is hence avidyA-kArya.

In fact, correct me if I am wrong, it is only the naiyAyikAs who should be
interested in this discussion of abhAvatva of darkness. For the vedAntI,
even if darkness is absence of light, it does not make even one Paisa of
difference. Because we hold all vishesha-abhAva to be triguNAtmaka. So,
even if darkness is light-abhAva, it still is triguNAtmaka avidyA-kArya
just as pot-abhAva is avidyA-kArya!!

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.