colour

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12:31 27/11/02

This relates to Message 15255 of Kuntimaddi Sadananda and is perhaps the

source of his approach in that post. It is to be found in the chapter on

inference in the Vedanta Paribhasa of Dharmaraja Adhvarindra tran. by Swami

Madhavananda pub. advaita ashrama pg.80

 

"It cannot be urged: How can Brahman which is colourless, be an object of

ocular cognition? For colour etc., which are without colour, are objects of

perception. Nor does the accepted principle that a colourless substance is

incapable of being perceived by the eye etc. (go against us), for according

to our view, the fact of Brahman's being a substance is unfounded. You hold

that a substance is that which is the substratum of qualities, or which is

an ingherent cause. But Brahman, which is devoid of qualities, cannot be

the substratum of qualities; nor is It an inherent cause, for inherence is

unfounded. Or, even if Brahman be admitted to be a substance, there is

still no contradiction in Its being an object of ocular cognition, like

time, which is colourless."

 

Leaving aside the matter of whether Brahman is a substance for now it seems

clear that Adhvarindra is not commited to the idea that a substance is the

substratum of qualities as can be seen from the important qualification 'You

hold....'. The general tendency of his argument is - even should we suppose

that your premises are generally true they are not universally so. In that

case any individual instance may be an exception. (Aside)Is this an upadhi?

 

On page 182 he makes another remark about colour which is very interesting -

"Because although colour which is devoid of any colour, we observe that it

is reflected." Here I believe we have the concept of colour as such as in

'penny plain, twopence coloured'. How is that the object of any perception

or reflection? Sankara held that these concepts were mental acts and though

they were not given in sense perception, were used in it. In that way

Adhvarindra may be thinking of seeing them as reflected in the mind. The

problem is: how can you find such items as 'coloured' unless you in some

sense already have them.

 

Well and good what has this to do with advaita? If the primal situation is

that the triad of knower, knowing and the known is a simultaneous

manifestation that is kept in 'existence' by mind then anything that seems

to offer an alternative primal situation i.e. a mind only view in which the

known has only a mediate existence, will obscure the aim of dhyana.

 

"The Creator is Himself, at one and the same time, knowledge, the knower and

the known.... There exists nothing which is not united to Him and which He

does not find in His own essence. He is the type of all being, and all

things exist in Him under their most pure and perfect form."

(Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, Kabalist, 1522-1570)

 

 

 

 

 

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