[Advaita-l] Application of pUrvamImAMsA nyAya to advaita vedanta - English summary

[V Subrahmanian]

Many thanks Shri Anand ji for such a nice presentation of the apaccheda
nyAya.  I had always wanted to read about this nyAya in such an
easy-to-understand form.  While on a conversation with Sri Mani Dravid
SastrigaL I came to know that even the very first 'lapse' is a case of 'the
later occurrence negating the earlier state'.  First the yaga is commenced
with the 'hope' that there will be no lapses.  This 'hope' is considered to
be a mithyAjnAnam by virtue of the lapse that occurs to falsify the 'hope'
entertained at the commencement.  In fact, it seems, the mImAmsA texts use
the term 'mithyAjnAnam'.  I even heard that the words शुक्तिका हि
रजतवदवभासते that Shankaracharya writes in the adhyAsa bhAShya are found in
an early mImAmsaka text.

Warm regards,
subrahmanian.v

On Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 9:02 PM, Anand Hudli <anandhudli at hotmail.com> wrote:

> The apaccheda nyAya of pUrvamImAMsA is used in situations where two events
> occur, not simultaneously but in sequence. In the JyotiShToma Yajna, the
> priests (Ritviks) are supposed to go around the sacrificial hall in a line
> where each holds the waist cloth of the Ritvik in front. If the sAmaveda
> priest, the udgAtA lets go the waist cloth of the priest in front, the
> prAyashcitta is that the sacrifice must be completed with no fee given to
> any priest. Furthermore, the sacrifice must be repeated. However, if the
> pratihartA priest lets go the waist cloth of the one in front, as the
> prAyashcitta the entire wealth of the sacrificer must be given to the
> priests. Now, a question arises: if the two priests let go the waist cloth
> of the one in front A) simultaneously or B) one after the other, what is
> the prAyashcitta? For A) the answer is: either prAyashcitta can be
> performed. For B) the answer is: the prAyashcitta related to the later
> event is to be performed, not the one related to the earlier event.  This
> is called the apaccheda nyAya wherein the second event is more powerful
> than the earlier one. Extending this to cognitions that we gain from
> different sources, the later cognition is more powerful than an earlier
> one, which stands negated by the later cognition. This is exactly the
> argument of AnandabodhAchArya, an advaitin, in his PramANamAla. From
> perception, there arises a cognition of the reality of the world. However,
> through the study of the upaniShads, the cognition of nonduality arises,
> which sublates the earlier cognition. This is an application of the
> apaccheda nyAya of the mImAMsakas.
>
> Anand
> _
>