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INDIAN LOGIC
it can well be beginningless like the series of a seed and a sprout. Certainly, nescience is nothing but the cycle-of-rebirths which is something beginningless according to you too."!3 The opponent asks : “But how should an end be put to nescience that is beginningless ? True, nescience is beginningless according to us too; but we can conceive of the means which might put an end to it. On the other hand, such a means should be inconceivable on your supposition"; the Vedāntist answers : "Why inconceivable? We say that a product-of-nescience of the form of means-of-moksa puts an end to nescience and then itself too ceases, just as one poison calms another poison and then itself too calms down."!4 The opponent asks : “But how can nescience perform a real operation when it is itself of the form of a non-entity ?"; the Vedāntist answers : "Even an unreal thing can perform a real operation, just as an illusory snake causes real fear, an unreal arrangement-of-lines stands for a real letter 'g' etc."'l5 The opponent objects : “But these lines are themselves real”; the Vadāntist answers : “They are not real in the form of the letter which they stand for."16 The opponent asks : "But how should Brahman which is ever all-knowing be a seat of nescience ?”; the Vedāntist answers : “Recall the analogy of skyconfined-to-jar etc. Moreover, a face when reflected in some shining medium exhibits features which do not actually belong to this face; similarly, Brahman when appearing as an individual soul exhibits features which do not actually belong to Brahman."!7 The opponent objects : “But then all individual souls should attain moksa when one does"; the Vedāntist answers : "Again, recall the analogy of skyconfined-to-jar etc. Moreover, one actually sometimes experiences cold sensation in one part of body, hot sensation in another; similarly, one individual soul might attain mokşa, another might continue in bondage."18 As can be seen, the Vedāntist's position suffers from one major flaw essentially common to all illusionism. Thus according to it the world of everyday experience is all an illusory show while the true reality lying at the back of this show is Brahman conceived as one soul (possessed of consciousness and bliss); but Brahman as thus conceived never becomes an object of experience for a plain man who therefore sees no reason why the world of his everyday experience be dismissed as an illusory show. (The other varieties of illusionism only differ in conceiving what they consider to be the true, reality lying at the back of the illusory world of everyday experience.
