[Advaita-l] Whether darkness is bhava - Vivarana Prameya Samgraha of Shri Vidyaranya

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Sudhanshuji,

On Thu, May 9, 2019 at 2:16 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> Here is a claim that darkness is an object like table and chair and yet it
>

Surely, a scholar like you has better comparison to offer than table and
chair for bhAvarUpa tamas. Else, manaH being bhAvarUpa will also be like
table and chair!

tamas cannot be mutually opposed to prakAsha if the former is abhAvarUpa;
the opposition then can be only one way. However, it is not so. For what
its worth, ajnAna too, like tamas is bhAvarUpa for this reason and more.
The commentators are at pain to show that it cannot be abhAvarUpa. An
abhAvarUpa ajnAna cannot pose any problem or be kAraNa, else we would have
had no refutation for shUnyavAda! Ergo, the commitment there is not to
assert that ajnAna is bhAvarUpa, but it is not abhAvarUpa. Thankfully, the
world isn't digital and we can safely understand it as yatkinchitbhAvarUpa.

Wishing all a blissful Shankarajayanti. May He be the guiding light to
remove the darkness related to even this darkness! _/\_ भव शङ्कर देशिक मे
शरणम्।

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
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