[Advaita-l] vyavahAre bhaTTanayaH

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Thu Nov 19 12:40:37 CST 2015


Namaste

//9. However in the classification of what is Vidhi and what is not,
MImAMsA and Advaita differ. The former hold that only those sentences which
teach an action are vidhi, but Advaita holds that even those sentences
which teach Brahman (but not any action) are important.//

In Advaita, over and above what is meant by 'vidhi', injunction, it is:
अज्ञातज्ञापनं विधिः - vidh is that which is 'informing/reminding' that
which is not known already.  Thus, in 'atmetyevopāsīta', 'आत्मा वा अरे
द्रष्टव्यः श्रोतव्यो मन्तव्यो निदिध्यासितव्यः ’, etc. where a vidhi
pratyaya is indeed present, it is taken as: अज्ञातज्ञापनं विधिः.  It is in
contrast to the general meaning of vidhi: where one has to perform
something to bring about a new result falling under the group of: utpādya,
āpya, samskārya and vikārya, - all of which is anitya.  The cited 'vedāntic
vidhi' is simply a process to know, realize as oneself the siddha vastu
Brahman.  Shankara clarifies this in the 'tat tu samanvayāt'.

Thanks Sri Siva Senani ji for the fine informative scholarly post.

warm regards
subrahmanian.v

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 10:26 PM, श्रीमल्ललितालालितः via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Thanks, Sive Senani Nori.
> It is helpful for many of us.
> BTW, you wrote :
> *However in the classification of what is Vidhi and what is not, MImAMsA
> and Advaita differ. The former hold that only those sentences which teach
> an action are vidhi, but Advaita holds that even those sentences which
> teach Brahman (but not any action) are important.*
> - here the first part mentions difference of vidhi among two mImAmsA
> schools. I assume that it is about meaning of vidhi-pratyaya. Now, the
> second part doesn't fit.
> So, I change my mind. I assume that vidhi means important. Then the second
> part fits somehow.
>
> BTW, you can add the first meaning assumed by me:
> vidhi-pratyaya means bhAvanA in mImAmsA and IShTa-sAdhanatva in advaita.
> Anyway, this is not similarity so not important to mention.
> But, it appears that a little difference was also revealed by you, so it
> may fit.
>
>
> *श्रीमल्ललितालालितः*www.lalitaalaalitah.com
>
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 8:34 PM, Siva Senani Nori via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > Recently there was a discussion and the quotation "व्यवहारे भट्टनयः" was
> > cited. I thought it would be helpful if this quotation is discussed.
> > This first occurs in the book तत्त्वप्रदीपिका (tattvapradIpIkA) by
> > CitsukhAcArya. This book is popularly known as CitsukhI (चित्सुखी). Here
> in
> > the first pariccheda, in the fifteenth topic, abhihitAnvayavAda [1] is
> > established. In the upasaMhAra, it is said: व्यवहारे भट्टनय
> इत्यङ्गीकारात्
> > (since the school of Kumarila Bhatta is agreed to [by AcAryas of
> Advaita]),
> > within the plane of transactions), in p 155 of the Nirnay Sagar edition
> > (you can access the particular page here:
> >
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89238017/chitsukhi%20extract%20-%20vyavahAre%20bhaTTanayaH.pdf
> > ).
> > This means that neither Gurumatam (the school of Prabhakara Misra) nor
> > Nyaaya (nor any other school like Vaisehika, Saamkhya or Yoga) is
> agreeable
> > to Advaita, to the extent the BhATTa school is. We see this agreement
> > between BhATTA school and Advaita in a number of other places. Even where
> > they differ, the two are the closest Darsanas, with some qualifications
> > [2].
> > 1. Veda is the pramANa for knowing the highest principle - Gurumatam,
> > BhATTamatam, VyaakaraNam and Advaita agree on this. Nyaya-VaiSeshika and
> > SAMkhya-Yoga derive their highest principle (ISvara and PradhAna,
> > respectively) through anumAna. Sruti is useful only for things such as
> > Svarga and Apsarasas in their view.
> > 2. Word denotes jAti according to Advaita and MimAmsA (both schools). In
> > NyAya, it is jAti-viSishTa-vyakti. VyaakaraNam accepts both at the level
> of
> > vyavahAra, but at ParamArtha level, both Advaita and VyAkaraNa reject
> jAti
> > as the meaning of words. Brahman alone is the reality. Refer:
> > अपागादग्नेरग्नित्वम् छा० उ० 6.4.1 and DravyasamuddeSa of Vakyapadiyam.
> > 3. Anupalabdhi as a pramANa is acceptable to BhATTas and Advaitins (and
> > also VaiyAkaraNas), but not PrAbhakaras, NaiyAyikas etc.
> > 4. For NaiyAyikas, anumiti happens through liñgaparAmarSa, but for
> > MImAMsakas and Advaitins, it happens through the knowledge of vyApti and
> > pakshadharmatA.
> > 5. Advaita, MImAMsA and VyAkaraNa agree that Sabda is nitya. The other
> > schools hold the opposite position.
> > 6. Advaita, MImAMsA and VyAkaraNa agree to the principle of
> > Sabdaprabhavatvam of Jagat (i.e. the world is born from Sabda), but not
> the
> > others. Refer Brahmasutra 1.1.28 (शब्द इति चेत् . . .)
> > 7. Where MImAMsA and Advaita subscribe to varNavAda (i.e. varNas arranged
> > in a certain order express meaning), VyAkaraNa holds that SphoTa is what
> > expresses meaning.
> > 8. SAmkhyas, Advaitins, MImAMsakas and VaiyAkaraNas are satkAryavAdins,
> > whereas NaiyAyikas are ArambhavAdins. (Some also call Advaitins
> > satkAraNavAdins, for Brahman is the ultimate reality, not Jagat).
> > 9. However in the classification of what is Vidhi and what is not,
> MImAMsA
> > and Advaita differ. The former hold that only those sentences which teach
> > an action are vidhi, but Advaita holds that even those sentences which
> > teach Brahman (but not any action) are important.
> > 10. Similarly, one major difference between MImAMsA and Advaita is about
> > the degree of reality of the world. There MImAMsakas and NaiyAyikas are
> > staunch Realists, whereas Advaita and VyaakaraNa are idealists or
> > conceptualists.
> > 11. The list can go on with svataHprAmANyam vs. parataHprAmANyam; whether
> > contact between vastu and indriya is essential or not for direct
> perception
> > (pratyaksha); whether indriya travels to the vastu or not in pratyaksha;
> > whether jAtitva (jAtau jAtiH) is accepted or not; whether pralaya is
> > accepted; on the role of ISvara; vivarta vs. pariNAma and so on.
> > Even later when VedAntaparibhAshA was written (the manual of Advaitas's
> > logic), MimAMsA influence continues. For instance the very first
> definition
> > in VedAntaparibhAshA - अनधिगताबाधितार्थविषयकज्ञानत्वं प्रमात्वम् - Here
> the
> > dala, अबाधित is the influence of MImAMsA.
> > RegardsN. Siva Senani
> > [1] The discussion is about the meaning of a sentence. Kumarila Bhatta
> > holds that first words express their meaning (abhidhaana) and then
> through
> > the mutual connection of these meanings (anvaya), the sentence meaning
> > (artha) is known. Thus the meaning of sentence is known through lakshaNA.
> > Prabhakara Misra and his followers hold that the words are first
> connected
> > to each other (anvaya) and then the meaning of the sentence (artha) is
> > expressed (abhidhaana). Here padaSakti is what expresses the meaning.
> > Nyaaya has a slightly different position. They accept that first the
> > meaning of words is known but the sentence meaning is known through
> > aakaankshaa. For VaiyaakaraNas, the additional meaning (i.e. meaning
> > gleaned from the sentence in addition to the meaning of words) is the
> > vaakyaartha and its relation is that of viSeshaNaviSeshyabhAva.
> > [2] Actually I think vyAkaraNa is closer to Advaita - if it is not held
> as
> > one form of Advaita itself (it indeed is so if we compare Brahmasiddhi
> and
> > Sphotasiddhi - but we need to realize that Mandana Misra also fused
> Mimamsa
> > positions and accepts Jnanakarmasamuccaya in Brahmasiddhi) - than Mimamsa
> > is. In my view the real reason for adopting bhaTTAnayaH is that for the
> > purpose of interpreting the meaning of Vedic sentences (which alone
> > establish Brahman as the ultimate reality), Mimamsa was the most
> respected
> > and that school had the best tool set (for instance, the six lingas for
> > interpreting - उपक्रमोपसंहारौ etc. are all from Mimamsa). However in the
> > important topic about the ultimate reality, their positions could not be
> > more different. Here is where Vyakarana is the closest and that is why
> the
> > word व्यवहारे is used.
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