shabda (was Re: [Advaita-l] 'End' not 'Means')

[S Jayanarayanan]

This will be my last posting on this topic. There are fundamental
misconceptions about words and meanings that I cannot help with
unless there is a deliberate effort to understand the arguments
presented and references submitted. I will reiterate what I said
before and then leave it at that.

--- Aditya Varun Chadha <adichad at gmail.com> wrote:

> wearing my nAstika hat for a while...
> 
> On 4/29/06, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > But the
> > > basis of morality (pertaining to AcharaN) is ultimately based
> in
> > > pratyakSa (which happens to be encoded in the scriptures also).
> notice, I said ENCODED.
> 
> > According to the mImAmsA perspective, all WORDS and MEANINGS (not
> > only of those of the Vedas) are not in the realm of the physical,
> but
> > exist eternally in a metaphysical realm. This is ESTABLISHED, and
> is
> > not merely a tall claim. Check out:
> 
> > A small gist of the arguments:
> >
> > 1) If the words you are viewing in the computer monitor really
> > existed only in the monitor, the word should be destroyed when
> the
> > screen-saver comes on. But the word doesn't get destroyed.
> 
> the words I see on the monitor are the result of electrical
> signals.

The words are not on the monitor at all. Re-read my previous posting
as to why:

-----
1) If the words you are viewing in the computer monitor really
existed only in the monitor, the word should be destroyed when the
screen-saver comes on. But the word doesn't get destroyed (for
obvious reasons - the word is used and perceived by someone else).

Conclusion: the monitor merely contains *symbolic representations* of
the words are not words themselves. For instance, "2" is not a
number, but only a symbolic representation of a number.
-----


If you think "2 (in decimal form)" or "II (in Roman numeral
representation)" or "10 (in binary arithmetic)" are all referring to
different entities or that the number so referred to is an electrical
signal, I cannot help you!

This reference might help:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_mathematics

-Kartik

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