[Advaita-l] [advaitin] what is abhava?

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Michael ji. Raghav ji.

Mimamsa speaks of 4 kinds of abhava - prior, subsequent, mutual and
> absolute. Aren't these all material abhava-s?  When SSSSji refers to
> abhavarupa avidya, which abhava is he referring to?
>

This is the question I had been asking to SSSS Ji's followers. And I was
getting no response. Bhaskar ji said that it is some eka-rUpa abhAva, which
is meaningless.

SugamA explains that it is jnAna-prAk-abhAva.

So, suppose I say I have Russian-language-ajnAna, it is like
prior-non-existence-of Russian-language-jnAna. When I learn Russian, this
prior-non-existence will be removed for ever.

So, ajnAna can be prior-non-existence-of-Brahma-jnAna in my buddhi. And
when I get Brahma-jnAna, this prior-non-existence will be gone for ever.

Or, ajnAna can be prior-non-existence-of-jnAna-sAmAnya.

He follows it up by saying that this jnAna-prAk-abhAva is anubhava-gamya
and not known through pramANa. Basically, SSSS ji is saying that this
jnAna-abhAva is known by sAkshI.

Traditional teachings reject both of these. You are well aware of how we
reject abhAva-hood of ajnAna.

Further, prAk-abhAva is rejected in siddhAnta with great clarity and logic.
If you go through it, you will be immediately convinced. I, for example, am
completely convinced. SSSS ji would be certainly aware of that. So, he
should have rebutted that while proposing jnAna-prAk-abhAva. But he has not.

Regarding, sAkshi-jnAna, abhAva being a paroksha-vishaya cannot be vishaya
of sAkshI-jnAna which is by definition aparoksha-jnAna and hence has
aparoksha-vishaya.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.

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