Sambodhi 2002 Vol 25

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 51

46 PROF. DR. YAJNESHWAR S. SHASTRI
SAMBODHI distinction, the natural question which arises is - do these two cognitions appear in consciousness or not? If they do, then there must be the cognition of their distinction also, if they do not, they are unreal. The other group of realists, which regards error as misapprehension equally fails to explain error. If error is purely subjective, if knowledge can misrepresent its object, then realism stands rejected. How can the shell be misperceived as Silver ? Silver cannot be perceived because it is not there and there can be no sense-contact with it. It cannot be a mere memory image because as long as error lasts, there is actual presentation of silver to consciousness. The real problem before these realists is : if silver is real, it cannot be contradicted afterwards by the sublating cognition of Shell, and if Sliver is unreal, how can it appear to consciousness during error ? The realists answer is not very satisfactory in this regard.
The Idealists, such as Madhyamikas – Vijñānavādins and Advaita Vedāntins tried to give some kind of satisfactory answers advocating theory of nondescribability and anirvacanīyakhyāti. Vaidika and Jain thinkers, wrongly ascribe asatkhyāti to Madhyamika or Sūnyavāda and átmakhyāti to Vijñānavāda of Asanga and Vasubandhu. Nyāya-Vaiseșika, Mimāsā, Vedānta and Jainism, have presented, Madhyamika as upholders of asatkhyāti and refuted it. Its presentation and refutation is found in Jayanta Bhatta's Nyāyamañjarī, Bhāmati and Kalpataru, Sarvadarśanasangraha, and Syādvadaratnākara, Nyāyakumudachandra and many of the works of Vedic and Jaina Texts. This term or this theory is not found in the original texts of Mādhyamikas, such as Mūlamādhyamika-kārikā and Vigrahavyāvartanī of Nāgārjuna, and in the works of later Madhyamikas.
Asatkhyātivāda, as exposed by these Vaidika and Jaina thinkers, means that in erroneous — perception, there is merely the perception of something which is unreal or non-existent (asat). In the Shell-Silver illusion, the silver that is perceived is neither real as something external nor even real as something internal. Therefore it is absolutely unreal. There is no such thing as internal or external, it is all void (Śünya). If the silver would have been externally real, then there would not have been any scope for erroneous perception. If the silver would have been merely an internal idea, then also there would have been no explanation with regard to its external manifestation. It is as such, asat or Śūnya. It is ‘asat which is the object of perception in this context. Thus, erroneous perception is declared to be 'non-being's apprehension (Kuppaswamy Sastri p. 123).