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XXXI Topics of Vallabha Vedānta
359 silver. In the Sankara school of interpretation the false silver is created on the conch-shell, which is obscured by avidyā. The silver of the conch-shell-silver is thus an objective creation, and as such a relatively real object with which the visual sense comes in contact. According to Vallabha the conch-shell-silver is a mental creation of the buddhil. The indefinite knowledge first produced by the contact of the senses of the manas is thus of the conch-shell, conchshell-silver being a product of the buddhi; in right knowledge the buddhi takes in that which is grasped by the senses. This view of illusion is called anyakhyāti, i.e., the apprehension of something other than that with which the sense was in contact. The Sankara interpretation of illusion is false; for, if there was a conch-shellsilver created by the māyā, it is impossible to explain the notion of conch-shell; for there is nothing to destroy the conch-shell-silver which would have been created. The conch-shell-silver having obscured the conch-shell and the notion of conch-shell-silver not being destructible except without the notion of the conch-shell, nothing can explain how the conch-shell-silver may be destroyed. If it is suggested that the conch-shell-silver is produced by māyā and destroyed by māyā, then the notion of world-appearances produced by māyā may be regarded as destructible by māyā, and no effort can be made for the attainment of right knowledge. According to Vallabha the world is never false; it is our buddhi which creates false notions, which may be regarded as intermediate creation (antarāliki). In the case of transcendental illusion-when the Brahman is perceived as the manifold world—there is an apprehension of Him as being, which is of an indefinite nature. It is this being which is associated with characters and appearances, e.g., the jug and the pot, which are false notions created by buddhi. These false notions are removed when the defects are removed, and not by the intuition of the locus of the illusion; the intellectual creation of a jug and a pot may thus be false, though this does not involve the denial of a jug or a pot in the actual world. So the notion of world-creation and world-destruction are false notions created by us. The jīva, being a part of God, is true; it is false only
iad idam bauddham eva rajatam buddhyā vişayi-kriyate. na tu sāmānyajñāne cakşur-visayi-bhūtam iti vivekaḥ. Vādāvali, p. 3.
? atrāpi bauddha eva ghato mithyā, na tu prapañcântar-vartiti nişkarşaḥ. Ibid. p. 6.
