[Advaita-l] Difficulty with Akhandakara Vrtti

[Venkatraghavan S]

Dear Sri Anand
That was a fantastic post - really enjoyed reading it.

I had a question 're your statement below, I would greatly appreciate if
you can clarify:

>>The advaitin is unwilling to accept even the simple identity
relation (tAdAtmya) in a nirvikalpaka cognition, as the laghuchandrikA
states

Could you please help me better understand the intended difference between
the terms tAdAtmya and svarUpa abheda?

For example, in the sentence "This is that Devadatta" I understand that the
terms "this person" and "that Devadatta", when the contradicting attributes
between the two are removed, are fundamentally non different. Therefore is
A) svarUpa bheda the non difference of the substratum, the
contradicting-feature-removed Devadatta, that is common to the terms "this"
and "that" in the sentence; and
B) tAdAtmya is the "simple identity before the apparent differences are
resolved" between the terms "this" and "that" - i.e there are many common
features, implying identity, but there are certain differences in the
unresolved "this" and "that"?

A clarification would be most helpful.

Thanks,
Venkatraghavan
On 19 Jun 2015 18:37, "Anand Hudli via Advaita-l" <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> The tarka saMgraha defines savikalpaka (determinate) and nirvikalpaka
> (indeterminate) jnAna (cognition) thus: tatra niShprakArakaM jnAnaM
> nirvikalpakam| saprakArakaM jnAnaM savikalpakam. An indeterminate cognition
> is one without an attribute (or adjunct). A determinate cognition is one
> with an attribute (or adjunct). Any savikalpaka-GYAna can be broken down
> into three components, as per nyAya. Or more precisely, any
> savikalpaka-GYAna has an objective content (viShaya) consisting of 1) a
> visheShya or qualificand, 2) a visheShaNa (also prakAra), ie. a qualifier,
> and 3) a saMsarga or relation between the qualificand and qualifier. This
> also corresponds roughly to the subject-predicate form of a sentence in
> natural language. Consider the Sanskrit sentence "nIlo ghaTaH" (the pot is
> blue.) Here the visheShya is "pot", the visheShaNa is "nIla" and the
> relation between them is that of inherence of blue color in the pot. Such a
> relation is called "samavAya" in nyAya. The naiyAyikas (logicians) hold
> that the qualificand, the qualifier, and even the relation between them is
> presented in an undifferentiated form in a nirvikalpaka cognition.
> JayantabhaTTa, in his nyAyamanjarI remarks that whatever reality is
> presented in a savikalpaka cognition is also presented in a nirvikalpaka
> one, the difference being that the nirvikalpaka cognition cannot be
> expressed in words, unlike the savikalpaka cognition which can. "tasmAd ya
> eva vastvAtmA savikalpasya gocaraH sa eva nirvikalpasya
> shabdollekhavivarjitaH". Later logicians of the navya nyAya school, led by
> ga~ngesha, further reduce the importance of the nirvikalpaka cognition to
> being a mere supplier of the ingredients (qualificand, qualifier, and the
> relation) to the savikalpaka cognition. In the logician's hands, the
> nirvikalpaka cognition is "raw perception", such as for example, the
> perception of a cow for the very first time by a child. In other words, a
> nirvikalpaka cognition does not involve any *concept*, while the
> savikalpaka cognition is said to involve concepts.
>
> While advaitins have no great objection to the way the savikalpaka
> cognition is described by the logicians, there is a crucial difference
> between the two groups in the way the nirvikaplaka cognition is defined.
> For example, the vedAnta paribhAShA says: tacca pratyakShaM dvividhaM
> savikalpakanirvikalpakabhedAt| tatra savikalpakaM vaishiShTyAvagAhi jnAnaM,
> yathA "ghaTamahaM jAnAmi" ityAdi jnAnam| nirvikalpakaM tu saMsargAnavagAhi
> jnAnaM, yathA "so.ayam devadattaH", "tat tvamasi" ityAdivAkyajanyaM jnAnam|
>
> Perception is of two kinds - determinate and indeterminate. The determinate
> is the cognition which involves apprehending relatedness, as for example
> the cognition "I cognize a pot". The indeterminate, however, is the
> cognition which does not involve apprehending any relation, such as, for
> example, the cognition produced by the statements, "This is that
> Devadatta", "You are That", etc.
>
> So nirvikalpaka jnAna is not mere "raw perception", despite its not
> involving comprehending any relation. The reason is quite simple. A
> savikalpaka cognition may be expressed as aRb where two things a and b are
> related by a relation R. However, the nirvikalpaka cognition cannot be
> expressed in the form aRb. Why? aRb implies a duality, between two things a
> and b. The advaitin is unwilling to accept even the simple identity
> relation (tAdAtmya) in a nirvikalpaka cognition, as the laghuchandrikA
> states -  yatra tAdAtmyaM na sambhavati tatra akhaNDArthatvAt,
> jIvatveshatvopahitayoH tAdAtmya-asambhavAt akhaNDArthatvam.
>
> Taking the example of "this is that Devadatta", the Devadatta seen earlier
> may have had a different appearance from the Devadatta seen presently.
> However, by discarding the contradicting features of the Devadatta seen
> earlier and the Devadatta seen now (jahadajahallakShaNa), one may arrive at
> the conclusion "This is that Devadatta." The relation is not technically
> identity (tAdAtmya), but svarUpa-abheda, the natural non-difference between
> the Devadatta seen earlier and now. The same process is briefly described
> in the samkShepa shArIraka I.196-197. As CitsukhAchArya says:
> saMsargAsa~ngisamyagdhIhetutA yA girAmiyam uktAkhaNDArthatA, the capacity
> of the words to produce a valid cognition not involving a relation is said
> to be the property of impartite sense (of the words).
>
> Finally, the dvaitins hold that all perception is determinate only. As BNK
> Sharma says, "all Pratyaksha is considered to be fundamentally Savikalpaka
> or determinate in origin and nature..." (Philosophy of Madhvacharya, page
> 144).
>
> Anand
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