[Advaita-l] Sapta Vidha Anupapatti

[ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli]

Seven untenables of Advaita - Sapta VidhA anupapatti (as per Sri Ramanuja in his
SriBhashyam)
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Ashrayanupapatti: What is the locus or support of Maya? Where does Avidya 
reside?
If there is
any such thing as Maya or Avidya, we are justified in asking for its seat or
abode. Verily it cannot
exist in Brahman, for then the nondualism of Brahman would break down. Moreover,
Brahman is said to be
pure self luminous consciousness or knowledge and Avidya means ignorance. Then 
how
can
ignorance exist in knowledge? Again, Avidya cannot reside in the indvidual 
selft,
for the individuality of the self is said
to be the creation of Avidya. How can the cause depend on its effect? Hence
Avidya cannot exist either in Brahman or in Jiva.
It is an illusory concept, a figment of the Advaitin's imagination. If it 
resides
anywhere, it resides only in
the mind of the Advaitin who has imagined this wonderful pseufo-concept, this
logical myth

TirodhAnanupapatti: How can Avidya conceal Brahman? If it does, then Brahman is
not self-conscious and self-luminous
subject. If Brahman is of the nature of self-luminosity and self-proved pure
knowledge, Ignorance cannot cover or veil its
essence. It is as absurd as to say that darkness can hide light or that night 
can
act as a veil on day.

Svarupanupapatti: What is the nature of Avidya? Is it positive(real) or negative
or both or neither? If it is positive then how can it
be Avidya? Avidya means ignorance and ignorance means absence of knowledge. To
regard Ignorance as positive is to accept
self-contradiction. Moreover if Ignorance is positive, how can it be ever
destroyed? No positive entity can be destroyed. As the
Advaitin admits that ignorance is removed by Knowledge, Ignorance can never be
positive. And if Avidya is negative , then how can
it project this world illusion on Brahman? To Say that Avidya is both positive 
and
negative is to embrace self-contradiction.
And to say that it is neither positive nor negative is to give up all logic

AnirvachaniyatvAnupapatti: Avidya is defined by the Advaitin as Indefinable. It
is described as indescribable. This is a clear
self-contradiction. To avoid this the advaitin says that Avidya is not 
absolutely
indescribable, that to call it indescribable
means that it cannot be described either as real or as unreal. Indescribability
is equated with being neither real nor unreal.
But this is absurd. This shows that Advaitin is giving up all logic. How can a
thing be neither real nor unreal? This is merely
verbal Jugglery. Reality and unreality are both exhaustive and exclusive. They
are contradictories not contraries. Between
themselves they exhaust all possibilities of predication. A thing must be either
real or unreal. There is no third alternative.
All our cognitions relate to either entities or non-entities. To refute this is
to refuse to think. To maintain a third
alternative is to reject the well-established canons of logic- the law of
contradiction and the law of excluded middle.

Pramananupapatti: By what pramana or means of valid cognition is AvidyA 
cognized?
Avidya cannot be perceived, for perception
can give us either an entity or a non-entity. It cannot be inferred for 
inference
proceeds through a valid mark or middle term
which AvidyA lacks. Nor can it be maintained on the authority of the scriptures
for they declare Maya to be a real wonderful
power of creating this wonderful world which really belongs to God.

Nivartakanupapatti: There is no remover of Avidya. The advaitin believes that
knowledge of the unqualified attributeless
Brahman removes Avidya. But such knowledge is impossible. Discrimination and
determination are absolutely essential to
knowledge. Pure identity is a mere abstraction. Identity is always qualified by
difference and distinction. Hence there
can be no knowledge of an undifferentiated attributeless thing. And in the
absence of such knowledge nothing can remove Avidya

Nivrtyanupapatti: In the last point we were told that there is no remover of
Avidya. This point tells us that there is no
removal of Avidya. Avidya is said to be positive (Bhavarupa) by the Advaitin.
How then can a positive thing be removed?
A thing which positively exists cannot be removed from existence by knowledge. 
The
Bondage of the soul is due to karma which is
a concrete reality and cannot be removed by abstract knowledge. It can be 
removed
by Karma, Jnaana, Bhakti and Prasada. The
ignorance of the soul is destroyed when the karmas are destroyed and when the 
soul
flings itself on the absolute mercy of the Lord
who pleased by Soul's constant devotion, extends his grace to it.

Shankar


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On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 11:26, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com> wrote:


> Namaste
>
> These Sapta Vidha Anupapatti of Avidya are in Sribhashya and Satadushani.
> The are Anupapattis for -
>
> Brahmashraya Ajnana , Tirodhana Anupapatti, Bhavarupa Ajnana, Jeeva Ajnana,
> Avidya Svarupa Anupapatti , Maya Avidya Vibhaga , Nivartaka Anupapatti and
> Nivrutti Anupapatti. Details later.
>

Waiting for explanations.