[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Shri Harsha's Khandana Khanda Khadya (English)

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

Very good observations by Vinodh.  Proper shravana requires knowlege of 
grammar, and proper manana requires knowledge of logic but nidhidhyasana 
is on a topic which is beyond words and thoughts.


On Tue, 27 Jul 2021, Vinodh via Advaita-l wrote:

>> Perhaps, if I may, I would like to share a couple of things that I found
>> very interesting about Sriharsha's work. They are about its relation to
>> 20th century logic and about the use of Sriharsha's arguments against the
>> Advaitic school of thought itself and how one could possibly reconcile
>> this.
>>
>> 1. Sriharsha's arguments against logic resembles in some way the work of
>> the 20th century Logician / Mathematician / Philosopher Kurt Goedel
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Gödel> related to his Incompleteness
>> Theorems.
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gödel%27s_incompleteness_theorems> The
>> first incompleteness theorem essentially states that is that in any system
>> of logic which have axioms (assertions of assumptions about "truth"), there
>> will always be statements  that will be true but can never be proved within
>> the system. The second theorem essentially states that any system of logic
>> cannot prove its own consistency. Reading about Sriharsha's arguments
>> against Nyayikas, who are essentially logicians, reminded me of Goedel and
>> his Incompleteness theorems. Goedel's theorems dealt a big blow to the
>> mathematician community in 1930s because mathematicians seemed to be sure
>> that, given a particular statement, it can always be shown to be true or
>> false. And what Goedel's incompleteness theorem meant was that there could
>> be certain statements, which have neither been proved or disproved for
>> centuries and have had entire lives spent on them, may be one of those true
>> statements which can never be proved within a system of logic. In a similar
>> way, I could imagine that the power of Sriharsha's arguments in his
>> Khandana Khanda Khadya could be equally devastating for the Nyayikas.
>>
>> 2. What I found quite interesting in the Introduction by the translator of
>> the Khandana Khada Khadya was a note regarding a rebuttal by Shankara
>> Mishra to Sriharsha's arguments by using it against the Vedantin's view.
>>
>>
>>
>> With regard to this rebuttal, however, clarity can be obtained by the
>> following excerpt from the article on "Is Advaita a framework?"
>> <https://adbhutam.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/is-advaita-a-framework.pdf> (which
>> you have also noted in another thread):
>>
>> "It is the folly of someone if he attaches himself with something,
>> some 'ism'. Sriharsha, the authorof the 'Khandana-khanda-khAdya' says:
>> अभीष्टशसद्धावशप खंडनानांअखशडडराज्ञाशमव नैवमाज्ञा ।
>> तताशन कस्मान्न याशभलाषंसैद्धाशन्तके ऽप्यध्वशन योजयध्वम्॥
>> [Though what is intended is secured by the arguments refuting the
>> other schools, they are not like an edict of a king who is deemed to be
>> above it. Therefore, there is no reason as to why they (arguments) may not
>> be levelled as desired, even against the path delineated by the siddhAnta.]
>> Shankaracharya has said in the adhyAsa bhAshya: All shAstra-s,
>> including those directed at teaching the means for moksha, belong to the
>> realm of avidya. And that includes
>> 'advaita' as a framework."
>>
>> In the above, Sriharsha himself admits that the arguments for refuting the
>> other schools can be levelled as desired even against the Vedantin himself.
>>
>> Therefore, as the shruti says, what can be conveyed by words and arguments
>> are only what the Truth is *not* ('na iti, na iti') because the Truth is
>> beyond words and imagination ('yato vaacho nivartante apraapya manasa
>> saha'), words and imagination being dependent on It and not the other way
>> around. Words and the logic that is conveyed by using them are only useful
>> in showing that the logic and words are themselves useless in expressing
>> the Truth directly. They are only indirectly pointing to the Truth, which
>> is beyond any words or logic, by showing what the Truth is not. The 20th
>> century Advaitic philosopher Satchidanandendra Saraswati
>> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchidanandendra_Saraswati> in his work
>> titled Vedanta Prakriya Pratibhijna (translated into English as "The
>> Method of the Vedanta: A Critical Account of the Advaita Tradition"
>> <https://books.google.co.in/books?id=ZMkbWhjE2M4C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false>)
>> critically examines several Advaitic texts as well as texts from other
>> schools of thought and claims that this is the way the shruti shows the
>> Truth.
>>

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>