Nyaya, Vyakarana and Vedanta

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Namaste to all Advaitins,

 

A few thoughts on nyaya and vyakarana in relation to the study of

Vedanta.....

 

 

In order to study Vedanta in the traditional way, one needs to have

prior knowledge of nyaya shastra and vyakarana. But our contemporary

education makes us badly equipped to study nyaya shastra, because the

way in which it is to be studied is markedly different than the way

in which we are schooled to study other subjects today. The study of

nyaya shastra requires purity of mind. Without purity of mind, the

entire edifice of nyaya appears like a meaningless structure.

 

Nyaya is all about padarthas, or word-objects. And this universe is

nothing but nama-rupa. Nama-rupa is the same as word-objects.

Therefore, the structure of the universe is the structure of word-

objects. The structural relationships between words (nama, names)

points to the structural relationships between objects (rupa, forms).

Therefore grammar, the structure of language, points to metaphysics,

the structure of the universe. It is thus that knowledge of nyaya and

vyakarana becomes important for the study of Vedanta.

 

If we try to understand the 'concepts' of nyaya through the

methodologies of our contemporary education, we would in fact be

moving further away from getting to their meanings. To know what a

padartha is, for example, entails a cleansing of the mind to rid it

of its constructive propensities. What truly is it that is called a

substance, or a universal? When we try to grasp these meanings with

the mind, they become elusive, and the mind is left perplexed by the

absence of anything 'concrete' it can grasp. The nature of substance,

or universal, eludes the analytical mind because it is already

grasped before the analysing mind goes out to grasp it with its

analytical mode of grasping. We do not realize that it is already

grasped, and that it cannot be grasped again, over and above the

grasping that has already taken place. Such an effort superimposes

conceptual abstractions on to what is already grasped.

 

The mind has already grasped substance before the question of the

nature of substance is asked. Likewise, the mind has already grasped

universal before the question of the nature of universal is asked.

Substances and universals are not found when we look for them – they

are found in receding back in quietude to see it in its originary

moment of grasping.

 

Wherefore then can we find answers to these questions when we launch

ourselves from what is already grasped and look elsewhere for the

answer? Analysis makes the mind grasp something else than what was

already grasped – because each concept that stands to consciousness

in the analysis is something else that is grasped. The moment is

lost, as it were, and another moment has brought forth another thing

before the mind – it has brought it forth by the very labour of its

efforts. The mind is fleet of foot, and brings forth

innumerable 'other' things in its labour to grasp – than that which

has already been grasped! Therefore, in truth, the mind cannot grasp

the truth of a thing through labour.

 

How then are we to know the truth of things? It is obvious that the

mind must be stayed from wandering in its seeking – it must be

stilled, as it were, in the already grasped 'thing' so that what is

grasped shines in the luminescence of consciousness without the

perturbations of the mind clouding it over with its own murkiness.

But this is a lot easier said than done. The mind is already made

murky by the seeds of innumerable pre-conceptions that it has about a

thing prior to its going out to grasp the thing, and therefore it

does not allow the thing to show itself forth in its purity, but

shows it with the murkiness of the mind's conceptions cast over it.

Therefore, the mind must be emptied of its preconceptions about a

thing before it goes out to grasp the thing so that what it grasps

may shine in its pristine purity. In Yoga Shastra, this emptying of

the mind is called 'pratyahara', and the mind going out to the object

in a pure stream, divested of all alien conceptions of the thing, is

called 'dharana'. Vedanta calls it purification of the mind. It is

thus that we may understand the tenets of nyaya shastra, which is a

pre-qualification for the study of Vedanta. It is thus that we may

grasp the padarthas.

 

The soul has to become a Virgin once again before she can gain entry

into the Bridal Chamber of the Lord.

 

 

With regards,

Chittaranjan