[Advaita-l] [advaitin] A kilogram of darkness please

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Dennis ji.

You have not replied to the central point. I will try again.

Let us concentrate. Even if darkness, as you say, is absence-of-light, how
is it not bhAvarUpa? BhAshyakAra proves in Br.U.B. 1.2.1 that abhAva are
bhAvarUpa (this is not common sense. this is advaita-siddhAnta-rahasya). He
makes a clear statement -- तथैव भावात्मकताभावानाम्. And He did not make a
statement just like that -- he gave solid anumAna for that.

So, either you refute His statement by counter logic, or accept that
prakAsha-abhAva, which you hold as darkness, is bhAvarUpa.
Be specific to the topic please.

//I would have thought that all Śaṅkara is saying in Br.U.B. 1.2.1 is that
darkness is the word we use to refer to an absence of light. Since we all
know what we mean when we speak of ‘darkness’, in that sense it can be
considered to ‘exist’.//

BhAshya is clear. Pot-abhAva, whether it is prAk, pradhvamsa, anyonya or
atyanta -- is bhAvarUpa. Further, all such vishesha-abhAva, be it
pot-abhAva, cloth-abhAva, chair-abhAva, food-abhAva, are bhAvarUpa. The
word bhAvarUpa here is not "in the sense of being considered to exist". It
has been demonstrated by BhAshyakAra to be like cloth, in the pot-abhAva
example. He has taken cloth as an example of bhAvarUpa.

So, please ponder over this and respond as to how even your acceptance of
darkness being prakAsha-abhAva militates against its bhAvarUpatva.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.