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VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
which has its cause in wrong knowledge—not to distinguish the two entities (object and subject) and their respective attributes, although thcy are absolutely distinct, but to superimpose upon each the characteristic nature and the attributes of the other, and thus, coupling the Real and the Unreal!, to make use of expressions such as 'That am I,'
That is mine?'-But what have we to understand by the term 'superimposition ?'—The apparent presentation, in the form of remembrance, to consciousness of something previously observed, in some other thing 3.
Some indeed define the term 'superimposition' as the superimposition of the attributes of one thing on another thing“. Others, again, define superimposition as the error
and action which characterise transmigratory existence have existed, with the latter, from all eternity.
' I.e. the intelligent Self which is the only reality and the non-real objects, viz. body and so on, which are the product of wrong knowledge.
3 "The body, &c. is my Self;' sickness, death, children, wealth, &c., belong to my Sell.'
s Literally 'in some other place. The clause in the form of remembrance' is added, the Bhâmatî remarks, in order to exclude those cases where something previously observed is recognised in some other thing or place; as when, for instance, the generic character of a cow which was previously observed in a black cow again presents itself to consciousness in a grey cow, or when Deva. datta whom we first saw in Pâ/aliputra again appears before us in Mâhishmati. These are cases of recognition where the object previously observed again presents itself to our senses : while in mere remembrance the object previously perceived is not in renewed contact with the senses. Mere remembrance operates in the case of adhyâsa, as when we mistake mother-of-pearl for silver which is at the time not present but remembered only.
The so-called anyathâk hyâtivâdins maintain that in the act of adhyâsa the attributes of one thing, silver for instance, are superimposed on a different thing existing in a different place, motherof-pearl for instance (if we take for our example of adhyâsa the case of some man mistaking a piece of mother-of-pearl before him for a piece of silver). The atmakhyâtivâdins maintain that in adhyâsa the modification, in the form of silver, of the internal organ
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