Re: Patañjali's sūtra-s
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
I wrote in post 9 above:
Before this viveka is fully developed perceptions are filtered, influenced by likes, dislikes, prejudices, that taint clear understanding.
Patañjali-muni calls this out in the 8th sūtra as viparyaya -transposition , change , alteration , inverted order or succession , opposite or false knowledge. They say this viparyaya ( filters as I call 'em) has 5 parts :
- tamas or mental darkness , ignorance , illusion , error
- asmitā ego or excessive ego
- moha , infatuation , delusion , bewilderment , perplexity , distraction
- mahāmoha - extreme attachment
- tāmisra ' nightwalker', a rākṣasa or ~the fear of death~
There too are another ways that errors and blemishes can arise. From a naiyāyaka school of reasoning ( nyāya¹ darśana) knowledge (pramāṇa¹) they say is gained in 4 ways.
- perception
- inference
- comparrison
- testimony
Lets take a look¹ at these 4 and see how they too can be challenged by viparyaya .
- Perception - I view something and say it to be true because I see it. Yet I have the doṣa of color blindness and cannot perceive certain colors - hence I do not see truly.
- Inference
- the cause and effect - I see black clouds coming my way and assume it will rain shortly , and it does not.
- the effect to the cause - I see black smoke arising from the other side of a mountain and infer that is must be fire; yet on further inspection it
is a dust storm, no fire. - what is commonly seen - I am walking behind a person of tall stature, yet am 10 meters from this person. By the looks of the arms, they look
muscular. The hair in the back of the head is short, the person is wearing pants. I assume by what I commonly see men wearing and looking
this person too must be male. Yet upon catching up to the person, it is a female by observing her face, gesture and facial makeup.
- Comparison - I pick up a 1 meter square box and it weighs about 1 kilo. I see another box of the exact same size, shape, color, taped the same way, and
yet when I try and pick it up I cannot as it weighs in about 10 kilo's. - Testimony - a person on the witness stand swears they saw Abba cross the street at 10: 30 AM to which he entered a shop, held it up and robbed the proprietor.
Yet another eye-witness said Abba entered the shop to stop the crime that was in process.
- fear - I walk into a dimly lit room and feel timid. I see a snake on the floor and run out. I testify to a friend outside that there is a snake in the room
and if he would remove it for me. He enters the room, turns on the light and sees nothing but a piece of rope in the corner of the room. - scriptures - a true source of knowledge. Yet I read it and completely mistake the knowledge for something else. The source is right and perfect yet my comprehension is flawed.
We can see that viparyaya can be alive and well in one's daily activities.
praṇām
words
- Any errors in my examples can only be assigned to me. No author has suggested these examples, hence all blemishes are of my making.
- nyāya -that into which a thing goes back i.e. an original type , standard , method ; named such as because it ' goes into' all subjects physical and metaphysical according to a method; It is suggested this nyāya darśana is tightly aligned with another branch called vaiśeṣikadarśana
- pramāṇa - a means of acquiring pramā or certain knowledge.
- As an fyi in vedānta the are 6 ways:
- pratyakṣa , perception by the senses
- anumāna , inference
- upamāna , analogy or comparison
- śabda or āpta-vacana , verbal authority , revelation
- an-upalabdhi or abhāva-pratyakṣa , non-perception or negative proof
- arthāpatti , inference from circumstances
- As mentioned the nyāya admits only 4 , excluding the last two mentioned above
- sāṃkhya views only 3 ways i.e. pratyakṣa , anumāna and śabda
- viparyaya -transposition , change , alteration , inverted order or succession , opposite or false knowledge
Last edited by yajvan; 04 October 2016 at 05:58 PM.
यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
because you are identical with śiva
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