________________
Vedantic Concept of Illusion
-A Critical Analysis
PRADYUMNA KUMAR JAIN
[In the following article, the author has made an attempt to evaluate Sankara's 'Philosophy of Error', i.e., rajju-sarpa-adhyāsa from the nonabsolutist logic of the Jainas. In a way, it is a challenge to the muchtalked of Vedantic theory of Advaita Brahman. Readers will find it not only interesting but stimulating and thought-provoking.-Editor]
The chief aim of the great mission of Sankaracarya was to create an intellectual forum for an advaitic interpretation of the philosophy of Vedānta. He had to prove, with his penetrating acumen, the concept of Brahman, which is knowable neither through any attribute nor any shape nor by any mode of intellect. It is wholly based on the 'No' of all the patterns of description. It is, therefore, nirguna (attributeless), nirākāra (shape-less), and advaita (non-dual). Being incomprehensible it comes to be, in that way, from intellectual point of view, a purely negative entity. It, as Sankara asserts, though negative explicitly, is positive implicitly. Brahman is not purely a total 'nihil', but it is positively something-in-itself, which is self-illuminating and self-revealing. Its positivity, no doubt, transcends the whole technique of describability. Hence the assertion of its positivity depends upon the negative technique of expression. This negative expression is an indirect technique of revealing the ultimate truth perceived directly.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
