[Advaita-l] Difficulty with Akhandakara Vrtti

H S Chandramouli hschandramouli at gmail.com
Thu Jun 18 02:52:15 CDT 2015


Dear Sri Venkatesh Murthy Ji,


 Reg your first question


 << Firstly the
Akhandakara Vrtti does not have any Content or Phala. It is
Nishparakaraka. If there is a Pot Vrtti there will be a Pot Content.
But in Akhandakara Vrtti there is no content like the Advaitis are
saying. There is no Contentless Vrtti in the world. If you say the
Illusion 'there is no silver' is cancelled there will be a cancelling
Vrtti like 'this is a shell'. 'This is a shell' is not a contentless
Vrtti. There is no contentless Vrtti like 'there is nothing' like
Advaitis are saying. >> ,


 Phala is a technical term as used here. All Vritti Jnana ( with the
exception of Akhandakara Vritti ) is attributed to knowledge gained with
the help of Chidabhasa. Chidabhasa , in the context of perception , is also
called Phala. This statement applies to knowledge of jada ( inert )
vishayas. However in Brahma/Atma Jnana, the “ knowledge “ gained is not
through Chidabhasa , but due directly through Chit ( Chaitanyam ) itself.
Hence it is stated that there is no Phala , meaning thereby that the
knowledge is not through Chidabhasa/Phala , but due directly through Chit (
Chaitanyam ). It does not mean that it is contentless. I have made the
answer very brief ( considering the huge response already this question has
receive3d ) , for details one could refer to texts like Vedanta
Paribhasha/Vichara Sagara etc.


 Regarding your second question


 << Secondly Advaitis are saying there is a Final Akhandakara Vrtti Jnana.
It will destroy other Vrttis and destroy itself also. Then we enter
Non-duality. How can you say the Akhandakara Vrtti is Final? If you
say this you should be saying it in Non-duality condition. But in
Non-duality there is no thought or Concept of anything. All concepts
are Illusions in Advaiti's book. Then the Akhanadakara Vrtti Concept
is also Illusion. It is like hare's horn. It is fictional. >> ,


 it is a cardinal principle that Jnana ( knowledge ) never destroys a Vastu
( substance ). It only destroys Ajnana ( Ignorance ). Hence wherever in
Advaita texts it is stated that Jnana “ destroys “ any vastu , my
understanding is that it should be understood as destroying the “ reality “
attributed to the vastu and not literally as “ destroying “ the vastu
itself. That applies to the Akhandakara Vritti and other Vrittis referred
to in your question also. I think this answers all the observations made in
your above question. Once again I have made the answer very brief
intentionally. If there are any further questions relating to the answer I
will surely respond.


 Many observations have been made on the meaning and scope of the term
“Akhandakara Vritti “ during the course of this thread. All Vritti Jnana is
due to Chidabhasa as mentioned earlier and invariably is of the nature “ I
know the pot “ ( just as an example ). In this Jnana, all three elements ;
pramatru ( I ) , pramana ( know ) and prameya ( pot ) : are included.
Generally termed the “ triputi “ . Thus all Jnana ( through Chidabhasa )
invariably includes three parts ( triputi ) and hence considered “
khandajnana “ ( jnana having parts ) . However Ahandakara Vritti Jnana is
through Chit ( Chaitanyam ) directly as mentioned earlier and is not of the
form “ I know Brahman “ ( which covers triputi ) , but is of the form “ I
am Brahman “ ( the three terms have samanadhikaranya ) which has only one
unitary knowledge and not a triputi. Thus the Vritti is said to be
Akhandakara ( having no parts ) .


 Regards

On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 7:52 PM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> I am having difficulty with understanding the Akhandakara Vrtti that
> is the Final Vrtti. Vaadiraaja has two objections . Firstly the
> Akhandakara Vrtti does not have any Content or Phala. It is
> Nishparakaraka. If there is a Pot Vrtti there will be a Pot Content.
> But in Akhandakara Vrtti there is no content like the Advaitis are
> saying. There is no Contentless Vrtti in the world. If you say the
> Illusion 'there is no silver' is cancelled there will be a cancelling
> Vrtti like 'this is a shell'. 'This is a shell' is not a contentless
> Vrtti. There is no contentless Vrtti like 'there is nothing' like
> Advaitis are saying.
>
> Secondly Advaitis are saying there is a Final Akhandakara Vrtti Jnana.
> It will destroy other Vrttis and destroy itself also. Then we enter
> Non-duality. How can you say the Akhandakara Vrtti is Final? If you
> say this you should be saying it in Non-duality condition. But in
> Non-duality there is no thought or Concept of anything. All concepts
> are Illusions in Advaiti's book. Then the Akhanadakara Vrtti Concept
> is also Illusion. It is like hare's horn. It is fictional.
>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
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