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

[H S Chandramouli]

Namaste Sudhanshu Ji,

Reg // 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
//.

There is a difference. Table and chair are pramAtru bhasya while darkness
is sAkshi bhAsya. A modern educated person is probably mostly unaware of
the difference.

Regards

On Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 11:00 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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.
>
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