[Advaita-l] Dvaita Vaada - Vadiraja Teertha's Nyayaratnavali Slokas 77-81 Mulavidya and Tulavidya

[Venkatesh Murthy]

Namaste
श्रुतियुक्ती समुल्लङ्घ्य भ्रान्तिः साक्ष्येव तत्र चेत् ।
घटेऽपि तद्वदेवास्तु द्वेधा साध्यं न किञ्चन ॥
If you violate the Sruti and Reasoning and say the Illusion has
Witness Consciousness as the Base we say the Pot also is like that.
Nothing is proved twice.
Vaadiraaja is saying if you say the Illusion of Silver has Witness
Consciousness as Adhisthana he can say the Vyavaharika Pot can also
have the same Witness Consciousness Adhisthana. Why should you say Pot
should have two Adhisthanas Witness Consciousness and Brahman
Consciousness?
नचैतदपि युक्तं ते दृश्येवारोपवादिनः ।
दृश्यानां घटपूर्वाणां यस्साक्ष्यन्तर्बहिर्हिते ॥
This is also not correct. You say the seen external objects like a pot
are superimposed on the Internal Witness Consciousness.
He is asking how External things like pot can be superimposed on
Internal Witness? Therefore this Illusion of pot in Witness
Consciousness is not possible. If you argue the pot is superimposition
on Brahman Consciousness there is the problem below.

अधिष्ठानस्यावरकाज्ञानमध्यस्तवस्तुषु ।
उपादानं तव मते तन्नाशे कारणक्षयात् ॥
वस्तुनाशोऽप्यवश्यं स्यात्तद्घटो नेति धीर्भवेत् ।
घटोऽस्तीति भ्रमस्त्री या द्वेधा सा विधवाऽप्यभूत् ॥
In your Advaita Mata the Veil of Ignorance covering Objects is the
Material Cause for Superimposed things. When that Veil of Ignorance is
destroyed the things also get destroyed because the Cause is
destroyed. Then the understanding 'There is no Pot' should be there.
The Illusion Woman 'There is a pot' became a widow two times.

Advaitis have tried two times to explain Pot Illusion. First they say
it is superimposed on Witness Consciousness. It is not correct because
external thing cannot be superimposed on internal consciousness. It is
against भान्तं तमनुभाति Sruti also. If they say Pot is superimposed on
Brahman also it is not correct due to above reasoning. Therefore they
cannot explain Illusion of pot even though they tried two times. It is
like the Illusion's wife has become widow two times because the
Illusion theory died two times.

Advaiti response -
Brahman is the Ashraya for मूलाविद्या the Root Ignorance. If we have
to know Brahman the मूलाविद्या must be removed. Then we know Brahman.
Similarly any object like Pot Consciousness is the Ashraya for
तूलाविद्या the Modal Ignorance. We can say
घटावच्छिन्नचैतन्याश्रिततूलाविद्या. If we have to know Pot the
तूलाविद्या must be removed. When we see a Pot the तूलाविद्या  'Veil of
Ignorance' gets destroyed by Pot Vrtti and we know the pot. But the
Pot Adhyaasa is still there. It is not destroyed. Why? Because the
मूलाविद्या is not destroyed. It is the Material Cause for the Adhyaasa
Illusion of pot and all objects in the world. Unless and until the
मूलाविद्या is destroyed the Adhyaasa will not be destroyed. Sravana,
Manana and Nididhyaasana are required to destroy मूलाविद्या.

Therefore the Pot Illusion is not destroyed before मूलाविद्या नाश
happens. This answer may not be appealing to Holenarsipur Swami's
followers. They do not believe in मूलाविद्या and तूलाविद्या. They can
give a different answer to the Dvaitis if interested.


Commentary - Vaadiraaja runs up to the batsman saying 'The next ball
will make your wife a widow'. He bowls a bouncer sharply rising from
the pitch and in line with the batsman's body. But the batsman quickly
moves out of the way and hooks it over deep fine leg for another six.

-- 
Regards

-Venkatesh