[Advaita-l] [advaitin] jnana abhava or jnana viruddhi

[V Subrahmanian]

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.7 is a list of entities in the cosmos who
have a deity, with a body-mind complex, and who are impelled by Brahman,
called Antaryāmī, who is taught in this section as the Self of all. In this
list 3.7.13 is Tamas, called Darkness:

यस्तमसि तिष्ठंस्तमसोऽन्तरो यं तमो न वेद यस्य तमः शरीरं यस्तमोऽन्तरो
यमयत्येष त आत्मान्तर्याम्यमृतः ॥ १३ ॥

  13. He who inhabits darkness but is within it, whom darkness does not
know, whose body is darkness, and who controls darkness from within, is the
Internal Ruler, your own immortal self.


यस्तेजसि तिष्ठंस्तेजसोऽन्तरो यं तेजो न वेद यस्य तेजः शरीरं यस्तेजोऽन्तरो
यमयत्येष त आत्मान्तर्याम्यमृत इत्यधिदैवतमथाधिभूतम् ॥ १४ ॥

  14. He who inhabits light but is within it, whom light does not know,
whose body is light, and who controls light from within, is the Internal
Ruler, your own immortal self. This much with reference to the gods. Now
with reference to the beings.

Shankara has already commented in detail for the first one in the list,
Prithvi, and in the next mantra about Tejas, Light, summing up, Shankara
says:

समानमन्यत् । योऽप्सु तिष्ठन् , अग्नौ, अन्तरिक्षे, वायौ, दिवि, आदित्ये,
दिक्षु, चन्द्रतारके, आकाशे, यस्तमस्यावरणात्मके बाह्ये तमसि, *तेजसि
तद्विपरीते प्रकाशसामान्ये* — इत्येवमधिदैवतम् अन्तर्यामिविषयं दर्शनं
देवतासु । अथ अधिभूतं भूतेषु ब्रह्मादिस्तम्बपर्यन्तेषु
अन्तर्यामिदर्शनमधिभूतम् ॥

  The rest is to be similarly explained. He who inhabits water, fire, the
sky, the air, heaven, the sun,  the quarters, the moon and stars, the ether,*
darkness -the external darkness which obstructs vision, and light, light in
general, which is the opposite of dark- ness.* This much with reference to
the gods, that is, the meditation on the Internal Ruler as pertaining to
the gods. Now with reference to the beings, that is, the meditation on the
Internal Ruler as pertaining to the different grades of beings from
Hiranyagarbha down to a clump of grass.

Thus the Upanishad and Shankara look upon Tamas, physical darkness, as a
bhāvarupa, existent, ponderable, entity which is opposed to physical light.

Elsewhere, this Upanishad, 2.1.12 says:

स होवाच गार्ग्यो य एवायं छायामयः पुरुष एतमेवाहं ब्रह्मोपास इति स
होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मा मैतस्मिन्संवदिष्ठा मृत्युरिति वा अहमेतमुपास इति स य
एतमेवमुपास्ते सर्वं हैवास्मिंल्लोक आयुरेति नैनं पुरा कालान्मृत्युरागच्छति ॥
१२ ॥

छायायां बाह्ये तमसि *अध्यात्मं च आवरणात्मकेऽज्ञाने *हृदि च एका देवता, तस्या
विशेषणम् — मृत्युः ; फलं सर्वं पूर्ववत् , मृत्योरनागमनेन रोगादिपीडाभावो
विशेषः ॥

12. Gârgya said, 'This being who identifies himself with the shadow, I
meditate upon Brahman.' Ajâtashatru said, said, 'Please don't talk about
him. I meditate upon him as death.' He who meditates upon him as such
attains his full term of life in this world, and death does not overtake
him before the completion of that term.

Shankara comments:

There is one god in *the shadow or external darkness, internally in
ignorance, which is a veil, and in the heart. *His attribute is death. The
result of the meditation is as before, the only difference being that in
the absence of premature death he is free from suffering due to disease
etc.

Shankara again identifies this external darkness as signifying the internal
ignorance in the jiva, as that which is enveloping, veiling, located in the
heart (mind). This shows that for Shankara darkness is a positive entity in
as much as the ignorance that does the function of veiling.  *This alone is
called mulavidya, which has its eidence in the Upanishads and Shankara.  *



*Sureshwara, in the Bhashya Vartika, too accepts tamas, equates with
ajnana, ignorance, as a positive entity that causes effects too, which is
dispelled by knowledge:*
बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

रज्जुज्ञानाद्धि सर्पादिप्रपञ्चविलयो यतः ।।सर्पाभासलयेऽपीयं रज्जुस्तमसि
नेक्ष्यते
।। ३९२ ।।

अग्रे पठन्तु...
<https://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/vyakhya/brihadaranyakabhashya-vartika/devanagari?id=BRV__VD00378&hlBhashya=%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BF>
बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

तमोविनाशनायैव प्रदीपोऽपीति चेन्मतम् ।। नष्टे तमसि कुम्भोऽपि स्वयमेवोपलभ्य़ते
।। ९९ ।।

अग्रे पठन्तु...
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बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

प्रतीच्येव यतोऽज्ञानमतस्तत्तत्त्वविद्यया ।।सकार्ये तमसि ध्वस्त
आत्मैवैकोऽवशिष्यते ।। १३४२ ।।

अग्रे पठन्तु...
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बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

क्षेत्रज्ञेश्वरभेदेन संज्ञा नैवेह विद्यते ।।तद्धेतौ तमसि ध्वस्ते कुतः
संज्ञाऽनिमित्ततः ।। ४४४ ।।

अग्रे पठन्तु...
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बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

ज्ञानाद्ध्वस्ते हि तमसि ध्वस्ते द्वैते सहेतुके || सर्वः कृत्स्नो भवेदात्मा
मनोवाचामगोचरः || १२८३ ......

अग्रे पठन्तु...
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बृहदारण्यकोपनिषद्भाष्यवार्तिकम्

यत्र त्वस्येत्यतः प्राह ध्वस्तात्मतमसि श्रुतिः || तत्केन कमितीत्यादि
साक्षेपं वचनं स्वयम् || २७८ ||

warm regards
subbu








On Fri, Apr 3, 2026 at 8:53 PM Michael Chandra Cohen <
michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Does this prove that darkness is merely the absence of light, rather than
> something opposed to light?
>
>
> https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-found-something-that-can-move-faster-than-light-the-darkness-inside-it
>
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> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/advaitin/CAAz9PvFJM%3Dn09MeS-Go8RU_3aG8VnQGPcXA0rA2C8pi_QTwTpw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>