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An Examination of Brahma-Sutra ( II. 2. 33 ) 113
Law of Contradiction and the Advaita Vedanta To Sankara, Being and Non-being are contraries not contradictories. Reality is Being; Non-being is unreal; but there is the third order of reality which is neither Being nor Non-being, This is the phenomenal word which is neither real nor unreal but phenomenal, this is Maya.
To illustrate this point, a reference to the Upanisadic account of the self would be instructive, Self is mobile and yet immobile, distant yet near, transcendent yet immanent." Sankara1, in his interpretation of this verse anticipates the objections of his opponents with regard to the question: how thest contradictory predications are made about the same subject? Śankara says that there is no fallacy here (naisa doṣaḥ)2 because two contradictory statements have been made from two separate standpoints. Atman is said to be immobile and one viewed from the ultimate point of view, when the Atman is free from all conditions. But it can also be described as mobile (more mobile than mind itself) when it is associated with the powers of limiting adjunct, of being an internal organs. Similarly, Atman is described as far and distant because it is beyond the reach of the ordinary mind, but for the wise people, it is described as being there within (tadantrasya sarvasya )*. Similar statements with contradictory predications are found at other places and Śankara has no other alternative but to reconcile them with the help of his multi-valued logic, the merit of which he unfortunately forgets while criticising the Jaina theory of affirmative-negative-predications (asti-nasti-vada ). However, if we remember the Jaina doctrine of reality as identity-in1. “Iśa Upaniṣad” with Sankara's Commentary, 5.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, 4.
4. Ibid, 5.
5. Umasvāmī, "Tattvartha Sutra', See also Kunda-kunda's (Introduction by A. Chakravarti, p.
'Samaya-sara
CXXXIII ).
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