Gita Rahasya -Tilak 254

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

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.