Traverses on Less Trodden Path of Indian Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 31

Traverses on less trodden path...
identified with the Absolute, then it cannot be considered as a proof for the existence of Brahman.43 It is self-contradictory to say that self-evident pure consciousness is the contradictor of our normal cognition of plurality, because, it means, again admission of duality of the contradicted and the contradictor. 44
Even on the religious ground, the doctrine of non-dual Brahman cannot be accepted, because it means denial of distinctions between good and bad deeds, pain and pleasure, this world and the world hereafter, knowledge and ignorance, bondage and liberation. Thus, if this doctrine is accepted then the consequence is destruction of the moral fabric of human life. 45
if it is said thal, Brahman is the only Reality and on account of Māyā or Avid yā, this apparent world exists, then again it is impossible to prove, either the existence of Māyā or Mithyātva (illusory nature) of the world by any means of valid knowledge. 46 The fundamental objection against Advaitin's is, whether the doctrine of Māya (cosmic illusion) adopted to explain this multiplicity of the phenomenal world is real or unreal. If it is real, then it destroyes the non-dual nature of Brahman and leads to an inevitable dualism. If it is unreal, then, this world which is caused by Mayo will not be possible. To say that Māyā is unreal and still it creates this world is as absurd as to say that a wonian is barren and that she is a mother. 47 And the Vedāntins themselves accept the theory tbat the real thing (the world) cannot be produced from unreal thing, 48 Again, the very statement that Maya is indescribable i.e. neither existent nor non-existent 'on account of being existent in the state of mundane life and no more at the state of realisation, indicates that it is describable in terms of either existent on the phenomenal level or non-existent in the state of liberation.49 To say that Mayā is indescribable, is self contradictory like saying that I am silent throughout the life and my father is bachelor. 50
43. A. S. p-161. 44. A. S. p-158. 45. (a) A. M. 26.
(b) A. S. p. 159. 46. A. S. p. 161-163. 47. Anyayogavya vacchedikā with Syädvādamañjari verse-13. 48. Māņdūkyopadişad with Gaudapādakārika and Sankarabbāşya-Advaita prakarana,
verse-28, p. 164-165.. 49. (a) N. K. Part-I, p. 63
(b) S. S. P. P. 8. 50. S. S. P. p. 8.