[Advaita-l] [advaitin] T&D – Avidyā

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

Namaste Sudhanshuji and all,
//It is not correct to say that hare's born is error and sublatable. No one
mistakes anything for horns of hare. So, when there is no error, naturally
it is not sublated either.//
if you cite hare's horn, it can be sublated - I am trying my best to
sublate!  Both are errors - one seen, the other, not.

//Cognitive error requires mind. //
Again,, that is distinguishing two illusions as well as reifying time, mind
pre-exists error. The whole phenomena is adhyasa. All namarupa is adhyasa.

The law of excluded middle (LEM) says: for any well-formed proposition P,
either P is true or not-P is true—there is no third truth-value. In
classical Indian logic this maps cleanly onto the idea that a cognition
(jñāna) is either veridical (yathārtha) or non-veridical (ayathārtha);
there isn’t a third truth-status that is neither.

ON THE LAW OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE/LEM -with ChatGPT:
What gets interesting in Advaita is that people sometimes try to use
prātibhāsika-sattā (illusory/appearing reality) as if it were a third
truth-value—“not true, but not false either.” That is exactly where LEM
becomes clarifying: prātibhāsika is not a third logical status; it is a
different mode of appearing,
****and it can be analyzed without violating LEM.*** (- law of parsimony
rules)*

The pressure toward “third status” typically comes from this hidden premise:
(H) Non-being (asat) cannot appear / cannot be cognized.

If you accept (H), then *since illusion appears, it cannot be asa*t;
therefore it must be “neither sat nor asat” (a third ontological kind).
LEM helps diagnose this mistake: (H) is not a logical truth; it is a
metaphysical assumption. And it is empirically false even at the mundane
level:

🙏🙏🙏

On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 4:55 AM Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste Bhaskar ji,
>
> "is the mithyA vastu deserved to be called as anirvachaneeya ( IOW an
> exception to law of excluded middle)"
>
> I think you have misunderstood. I did not say it was an exception to the
> law of the excluded middle.
>
> Kind regards,
> Venkatraghavan
>
> On Wed, 28 Jan 2026, 14:16 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin, <
> advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
>> praNAms Sri Venkatraghavan prabhuji
>>
>> Hare Krishna
>>
>>
>>
>> I was bit hurried as I was in tight official schedule 😊 My question is
>> very simple, is the mithyA vastu deserved to be called as anirvachaneeya (
>> IOW an exception to law of excluded middle).  For the anirvachaneeyatvaM
>> shankara gives the example of foam / water, can this be compared with
>> Kalpita jneya vastu due to adhyAsa?? Further to explain this :
>> anirvachaneeyatva occurs only when both the kAraNa and the kArya are
>> simultaneously perceived (like mrudghata) either by direct perception or
>> through the shAstra. On the other hand mithyA is related to the wrong
>> perception of an object. During the bhrAnti samaya we have a deterministic
>> knowledge that it is satya (though it is bhrAnti jnAna) and after realizing
>> the existing thing we realize that it was just our mithyA jnAna.  At what
>> stage do we think that there was / is / will be an anirvachaneeya vastu
>> existing ??  that too when it is proven that it was just mere Kalpita jneya
>> vastu due to adhyAsa.  Neither dviteeya Chandra nor sarpa exist to explain
>> it as a sadasadanirvachaneeya mithyA vastu just coz. sarpa and dviteeya
>> Chandra mithyA jnAna is sublated.
>>
>>
>>
>> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
>>
>> bhaskar
>>
>>
>>
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