Aptamimansa Critique of an Authority Bhasya

Author(s): Samantbhadracharya, Akalankadev, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: Jagruti Dilip Sheth Dr

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CRITIQUE OF AN AUTHORITY
alleged trans-empirical reality that it is possessed of a single form, is beginningless, is endless. Even the commentators of Samantabhadra who are inclined to put the doctrine in question into the mouth of the Sānkhya philosopher are compelled to argue that a consistent upholder of it ought to be the transcendentalist who, while repudiating the reality of all spatio-temporal diversity, declares his alleged trans-empirical reality to be uniform, beginningless and endless. As a matter of fact, both the 'doctrine of absolute being' and the doctrine of absolute nonbeing' ought to be attributed to the transcendentalist, the former insofar as he declares his alleged transempirical reality to be uniform, beginningless and endless, the latter insofar as he repudiates the reality of all spatio-temporal diversity. But maybe Samantabhadra himself thought that it is the Sānkhya philosopher who is guilty of upholding the doctrine of absolute being'; in that case we will have to assess the exact import of his criticism of the Sānkhya philosopher, an assessment that will have to be kept in mind while following the whole text of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra's polemics against his rivals may be divided into two groups, one that is directed against the transcendentalist and the other that is directed against the empiricist. In the former group of polemics Samantabhadra is interested in showing how his rival is clearly repudiating the verdict of experience, in the latter group in showing how his rival is playing into the hands of those who clearly repudiate the verdict of experience. A close study of the criticism levelled in the present case by Samantabhadra's commentators against the Sankhya philosopher should enable us to see that this criticism belongs to the second of these groups.
Verse 12 अभावैकान्तपक्षेऽपि भावापह्नववादिनाम्।
बोधवाक्यं प्रमाणं न केन साधनदूषणम्॥१२॥ · Similarly, those who attribute to entities the character 'absolute nonbeing' while repudiating the reality of 'being' can treat neither a piece of cognition nor an uttered sentence as a case of authentic knowledge; how will then they be able either to establish a thesis or to refute one ? (12)