Syadvada Manjari

Author(s): Mallishenacharya, F W Thomas
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 82

XIII. The Vedanta doctrine of Brahma as the sole reality is no other, no second, at all. As thus: perception reports it; perception is twofold, according to the distinction of unquestioning (nirvikal paka) and that open to questioning. And from that unquestioning perception, which has for range the existent alone, there is establishment of it (the supreme Brahma) alone. And it is thus said:
"There is an inspective cognition first, unquestioning;
Like the consciousness of children and dumb persons, born of the pure entity'20). "Nor have we from 'Like affirmation, mutual exclusion also is presented actually in perception (adh yakşate)' establishment of duality: for that (i. e. perception) does not have negation in its range, because of texts such as: "(The wise) declare perception to be affirmative, not negative" 21). And as for the questioning perception, which establishes the distinctions of pot, cloth, etc., this also, as it reveals them actually as accompanied by the form of existence (sattā), establishes actually the non-duality of existence. And existence is in the form of the supreme Brahma: thus is it said: "That which is non-dual is the form of Brahma" 22). (102) “And from inference also its existence (sadbhāva) is obvious. As thus: Affirmation only is reality (taltva), because it is knowable (prameyatva); for knowable is what is object of the means of knowledge (pramāna-vişaya), and the means of knowledge, designated perception, inference, scripture, analogy, practical consequence, proceed only as having reference to positive objects. And thus it is said 23):
“There would be intervention of perception, etc., when the positive part is apprehen
ded;
The procedure of non-origination thereof) is taken as apprehension of the negation". *As for the means of knowledge called negation (abhäva) 25), that, since it has no validity in proof, is not a means of knowledge; because it has no object (visaya) whatever, whereas what is within the scope of the five means of knowledge 26) is affirmation only; and, since by that alone 27) knowability is comprehended, it is established that as knowable only affirmation is the truth, while what is not in the form of affirmation is not knowable, as an ass's horn: and all this reality of entities is knowables, therefore in the form of affirmation only.
"Or, herefrom also there is establishing thereof: - Villages, pleasances (ārāma) 28), and other things are included in appearance; because they appear; what appears is included in appearance, just like that which has the own-form of appearance ?): and villages, pleasances and such things do appear; therefore they are included in appearances'. "And Scripture also is clearly seen to demonstrate the supreme Brahma -
"All this is the primeval Person, what has come into being, and what shall come
into being;
") On nirvikalpaka, pure perception, involving nothing propositional or linguistic, see also p. 124. The topic figured prominently in philosophical debate, the nirvikalpaka perception being admitted both by Buddhism and by the Vaiseșika.
10) Kumärila's Sloka-vārttika, IV. v. 112 (M. L.), trans. p. 87: quoted in Prameya-kamala-o, fol. 141 b. *) See supra, p. 80. *) Source untraced. *8) Kumārila's Sloka-värttika, IX. v. 17 (M. L.), trans. p. 245: quoted in Prameya-kamala-o, fol. 54 b. ") or the perception, the negative perception being merely the absence of the positive.
*5) Negation is with the Nyāya and the Vaišeşika a 'category'. Its validity as a means of knowledge (pramāna) is discussed in Kumārila's Sloka-vārtika, IV. 1 sq., trans, pp. 240 sq.
*) Perception, inference, analogy, authority, and practical consequence. 97) By what is positive or affirmative. 18) Real objects.
**) Is mere appearance. 8 Thomas, The Flower-Spray