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1. PRAMEYA in ADVAITA VEDANTA {AMANASKA YOGA) 1.0. Prameya

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1. PRAMEYA in ADVAITA VEDANTA {AMANASKA YOGA) 1.0. Prameya 14 1. PRAMEYA IN ADVAITA VEDANTA {AMANASKA YOGA) 1 1.0. Prameya 1 i Oneness of the individual soul and Brahman, the pure corjscious- ness, is the prameya, the subject matter of Advaita Vedanta; f<^r there lies the purport of the Vedantas ; ■ visayah jivabrahmaikyam suddhacaitanyam prameyam, tatra eva vedantanam tatparyat.' The existence of such pure-consciousness as the non-duat reality is realized with confirmation from three stand points: (1) Direct .Experi- ence, (2) Inference and (3) Support of the authority (sr^i-yukti-antfbhuti)./ H i 1.1. Direct experience {aparoksanubhuti) » I All disturbances, sufferings, problems, tensions, tragedies and dif­ ficulties etc. are the outcome of the agitation of mind. When mind is quiet, it is in a state of all peace and tranquility. This state is caljled qui­ escent consciousness, which never takes any part in any fact of act, as said in the Pat^adaii : manojrmbhanarahitye yathia saksi nirakulah/ mayajrmbhanatah purvam sat tathaiva nirakulam/P The witnessing consciousness becomes pure, calm and unigitated, if the mind is devoid of all mentations. Similarly, the prameydk (sat) is known to be pure, calm and unruffled prior to the function of niaya (the creative impulse). The Advaitic tradition enjoins upon man to tfanscend 15 the source of duality i.e. the mind, intellect, vital energy, ego and igno­ rance etc, as the prerequisite to have a direct experience of the reality, - ~ ' ~~ f the p ra m eya . Acarya S ankara’s N irvanasatkam comjlrising "manobuddhyahamkaracittani naham”^ is an instance of the direct experienc of the reality, the pure-consciousness. which ^s based . - 0^ - i upon the Mandukyakarika’s clue, "anythagrhnato svapno..." and| ' ■ ' " ' * __ ■ — is used widely as a relaxation technique, is another means of difect ex­ perience of reality. The multiple objects of the world are known on accouni of the exercise of the mind and intellect. When a child looks several tiilies at a thing, say a toy, the idea of that thing is cognised by his mind anfi there­ after he can recognize it slowly. Had he not paid sufficient an^ount of attention to that object, he would not have apprehended it. A; person ignorant of any language, becomes ' d e a f to the phonemes of tfiat lan­ guage and is unable to listen to all the sounds of that languagcj There­ fore, the perception of different entities, i.e. the dual world, |lepends upon .the mind only. If the mentation is stopped, there will be not knowl­ edge of the duality : manodrsyamidam dvaitam yatkincit sacaracaram/ martasah hyamanibhave dvaitam naivopalabhyate//^° “All this that there is - together with all that moves or ^oes not move, is perceived by the mind (and therefore all this is but th0 mind); for when the mind ceases to be the mind, duality is no longer perjceived.” After discarding the mind, there will be nothing that qould be known. When there is the abandonment of the duality, what is experi­ enced is called Sat, the awareness, the non-dual reality, the prameya : taddstimitagambhiram na tejo na tamastatam/ anakhyamanabhivyaktam sat kincidava^isyate//^ ic “What remains after dissolution is an unmoving and ungraspabld, un­ named and un-namable, unmanifest, indefinite something beyond| light and darkness and all-pervading”. This is the direct experience of thejpure- consciousness - the pranieya, known by making the pram ata |is the grameya. | 1.2. Inferential knowledge: anumana The knowledge of the prameya, pure consciousness, is received through inference in three ways : viz, by the analysis of (I) the Three States, (II) Five Sheaths and (III) Five Elements. 1.2.1. Analysis of the three states: waking, dreaming and d^ep sleep Waking according to the Pitambara^’', is that state when one ac­ quires knowledge through the direct contact of sense organs v^ith the objects or through the impression of such contacts. In waking s ate, the objects of knowledge differ from one another, because their < ualities differ; as the cow, the horse etc. are different. If each of the knowledge of such objects like sound etc. is separated from their different objects of knowledge, then such knowledge does not shine different f'om one another. It is because knowledge is known in all as knowledge only. It is just like the sky, which is considered as one in everything even ' hough it is present differently in different objects such as in a pot or iif a hut’**. j The objects are different in themselves, from one another as welll as from those included in their own class {sajatiya, vijatiya and svagata-bheda). Whereas knowledge or consciousness of one sound neither difjfers from j that of another sound nor it differs from the knowledge of tou4h etc. 17 Similar is the case in the dream state, where the perceived cjbjects are transient. They are varying in nature as these are seen diffei'ently. But the perceiving consciousness does not differ as it is known ajs one. This consciousness is not different from that of the waking state, i In deep sleep, where “want of knowledge” is perceived, the con- sciousness is distinct from the object (here, ignorance), but not fiom it­ self, as the knowledge of the pot is different from its object 'pot . This knowledge in deep sleep, when separated from its object, does not differ from the pure knowledge or awareness of waking state. Thus in all the three states, waking, dreaming and deep sleep, it is known frorr infer­ ence that the persistence of an unvarying, consistent and one - ype of knowledge, called consciousness continues homogeneously. 1.2.2* Analysis of the five sheaths Human being is not merely corporeal, but he is made up of five sheaths : physical, mental, vital intellectual and blissful. In the begin- ning, ‘sound health’ was considered from the stand point of the physical t body only. Afterwards, mental health is accepted in the sense olF sound health and then the definition broadened from ‘social’ to 'spir tual or holistic life'. The cancerous tissues are now detected in the ‘vita r body six months before they actually appear in the physical organs. The Kirlian photography which takes the picture of aura or life-force, has co ■vfirmed the more permanent and pervasive nature of different bodies not only in human beings or animals, but even in the plants also. Human beings are I made of five sheaths, declare the Upanisads. From analysis of thiese five sheaths of a being, we find that the mind is more subtle and internal than I d the physical one, and the vital sheath is more subtle and pervasive than the mind. Similarly intelligence is more pervasive than the vital sheath. So, the more subtle, internal and pervasive one is, it becomes morej real. Consciousness being the subtlest, is the greatest reality. 1.2.3. Analysis of the flve elements The physical realm consists of five gross elements viz., ^arth, water, fire, air and ether which are experienced from their qualities; like, smell etc., by the five sense organs, viz, nose, tongue, eye, skin anjd ear respectively. The word earth does not denote the physical earth attone, ! but it is a symbol which stands for all that is known by the quality ‘sdiell’, experienced with the sense organ “nose”. Similar are the symbol^ like water, fire etc. In analyzing these five elements, earth etc., it is dedjuced that the subtler an element is among the five, the more pervasivtj and more causal it becomes. Earth is dissolved in water which becomes its cause. Similarly, water comes from fire and is dissolved in fire. jUlti- mately, consciousness being the subtlest, becomes the most pervasive s reality. j 1.2.4. Inference and experience compared Though the knowledge of the Pure consciousness or Ejrah- man, is known only through experience - proclaim the Upanisads,?still — ’ ' ' A -- Swami Vidyaranya and others like Sriharsa [Sriharsa in his Khandanakhandakh~adya writes 'anumayapi tadadhigamarri] have tried to acquir an inferential knowledge of the prameya (Brahman) as stated. However, the knowledge obtained by experiencing the awareness is 4asy, strong and convincing. Truly speaking, what the great teacher of Bhagavan Acarya Sankara, Sri Gaudapadacarya has very explicitly ex­ 19 posed of the amanibhava, is the right method of knowing the reality. Amanibhava is^ state where the mmd is without mentation i.e. mi^d is not allowed to receive objects outside and not allowed to function.! It is introverted. Then the aspirant becomes ready to receive the experience of his own awareness, the awareness of the self. Here, it is felt that l^ase- less is the common objection which blames the Advaitins that they Want to become “sugar” instead of lasting the sweetness of sugar; for, thejre is i no mind, the duality, to taste it. Besides these two means of attaining the prameya, the third m^eans I i of knowing the prameya is the “Authority”. Therefore, let the natu^^e of the prameya be discussed here as the scriptures describe it vividly j I I 1.3. Shstric description of prameya i The substance which is experienced without mind and intellect, obviously not by senses but by direct experience, (aparoks'anubhuti^, is named as bodhamtttram or Brahman, the reality. Such prameya is! de- / / ^ scribed by Advaitins in an Upanisadic, Philosophic or s^stric language as follows : i 1.3.1. Cit or bodhaniatram'. pure conciousness i When the objects, i)ii which knowledge is acquired, are remoived from the mind, what remains is the pure consciousness, the awarenjess, the self or Brahman. This knowledge is called determination of Brah­ man. i yasmin yasminasti lake bodhastattadupeksane/ yad bodhaniatram tad brahma ityevam dhi brahmaniscayah// ^ The self knows all that is knowable.
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