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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
The objection
that the Qualityful cannot come into existence out of the
Qualityless can itself not be made here; because, the two
substances do not belong to the same category, and whereas the
one is Real, the other is merely an appearance ; and it is
common experience, that, though there may be fundamentally
one Real substance, the appearances of that same substance
change according to the faulty vision, or the ignorance, or. the
blindness of the person who Bees. Take, for instance, the two
qualities, namely, the words which can be heard by the ears, or
the colours which can be seen by the eyes. Natural sciences
Lave by minutely analysing the word or sound, which can be
heard by the ears, clearly proved that 'sound' is nothing but
waves or vibrations of the air. In the same way, it has now
been determined by minute researches that the red, yellow, blue
and other colours, which are visible to the eyes, are the evolutes
of one fundamental sunlight, and that this sunlight itself is a
kind of motion or vibration. If, although 'motion' or
vibration is fundamentally one, the ears recognise it as 'sound'
and the eyes as 'colour', then, the same argument being applied
in a more comprehensive way to all the various organs, it
follows that (i) the different human senses attribute (i. e., make
an adhyaropa of ) the different qualities of sound, colour, etc.,
which (qualities) are embodied in Name and Form, to one and
the same Fundamental Substance, and thereby various
appearances come into being ; that (ii) it is not necessary for
these appearances, qualities, or Names and Forms to exist in
the Fundamental Substance ; and that (iii) the coming into
existence of all Names and Forms can thus be logically
explained without the help of the doctrine of satkaryavada.
And in order to establish this proposition, Vedanta philosophy
gives the various illustrations of a string being taken for a
serpent, or a shell being taken for silver, or one thing
being seen as two things by poking the finger
under the eyeball, or the same substance being seen
to be of different colours by the use of spectacles of
different colours. It is true that a man will always
perceive the various Names and Forms or qualities in the
world, in as much as he can never get rid of his organs.
But, this relative appearance of the world, which, is seen
by the eyes of the organised human being, cannot be said
to be the fundamental, that is, the non-relative and eternal
form of the world. If human beings come to have fewer or
more organs than they have at present, they may not see the
universe in the same way as they now see it ; and, if this is
true, then, on being asked to explain the eternal and real
nature of the Element which is at the root of the world,
without reference to the organs of the person who sees, one
las to answer by saying that the Fundamental Element is
quality less, and our seeing it as qualityful is the result of the
nature of our organs, and not the quality of the Fundamental
Substance.
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