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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
It is true that though
our organs attribute the qualities of sound, colour etc., to
vibrations of air, or mistake a shell for silver, the vibrations
of air do not possess the quality of sound or colour, nor does-
the shell possess the quality of silver ; but, from the fact that
the Fundamental Substance does not contain the particular
attributed qualities, one cannot draw the necessary conclusion
that It will not possess other qualities. Because, as we actually
see, though the shell does not possess the quality of silver, yet,.
it possesses some qualities other than those of silver. This,
therefore, gives rise to the following difficulty, namely, though
one admits that the fundamental Brahman does not possess the
qualities which are ascribed to it by one's organs as a 'result
of one's ignorance, how can one be sure that the Parabrahman
does not possess other qualities ; and if it possesses other
qualities, how is it qualityless ? But, if one considers the
matter a little minutely, it will be seen that even assuming
the fundamental Brahman to possess qualities other than those
ascribed to it by the organs, how are we going to find them
out f The qualities which a man perceives are perceived by
him through the medium of his organs ; and those qualities,
which are not perceptible to the organs, cannot be known.
In short, even if the Parabrahman possesses some qualities other
than those which are ascribed to it by our organs, it is not
possible for us to know them ; and saying that the Para-
brahman does possess qualities is illogical, if it is impossible
for us to know those qualities. Therefore, Vedantists
understand the word ' guna ' as meaning 'qualities which
are knowable by human beings’ and formulate the proposition
that the Brahman is ' quality less , in this sense. Non-dualistic
Vedanta does not say that the fundamental Parabrahman
cannot possess qualities or powers which are beyond the
imagination of human beings, and no one, as a matter of fact,
can say that. Nay, even the Vedantists say that the ignorance
of the organs or Maya, which was mentioned above, must be
an unimaginable power of that fundamental Parabrahman.
The three-constituented Maya or Prakrti is not some
independent substance ; but, what happens is that the human
organs, as a result of ignorance, ascribe (make an adhyaropa
of) a qualityful appearance to one homogeneous, and quality-
less Brahman. This theory is known as ' VIVARTA-VADA '.
The explanation given by the Non-Dualistic Vedantists as to
how the variegated qualityful universe first came to be seen
if the qualityless Brahman was the only Fundamental
Substance, is as follows . — The Kanada Nyaya philosophy
propounds the doctrine that innumerable atoms are the funda-
mental cause of the universe, and the followers of Nyaya
philosophy consider these atoms to be Real.
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