7.3. Acid Khyāti

The Svāminārāyaṇa Bhāṣyakāra elaborates this topic in-depth in the SSS:

pañcīkāro bhaved yatra satkāryatopapadyate |
acitkhyātirmatā tatra śuktyādau rajatādike || SSSK 277 ||

“Due to realism (sadkārya-vāda), and pañcīkaraṇa (in the process of creation five great elements have the same producer. So, on earth every māyic element is included in other elements in certain portion.), it is acid-khyāti. For example, when we perceive silver in nacre.”

Acid khyāti is based on māyic products. As far as māyic products are concerned in erroneous results, acid khyāti has prevailed. Svāminārāyaṇa explains the knowledge of our māyic product is not false at all.

He explains:

“All the worldly belongings are not false, nevertheless, due to their focused state, they are not able to see it, so they claim that all these worldly substances are false. For instance, there is no night for a person sitting in the chariot of Sūrya; but for those on earth, there is both day and night.” (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/39, p.100)

Therefore, Parabrahman pervades everywhere so, the prescribed moral do’s and don’ts are indeed true, not false. Whosoever falsifies them will be consigned to Naraka.^[1]’

In this analysis, it seems from all that we read in the Vacanāmṛta, when we talk about māyic or inert objects, that; error is a case of omission. It is a case of incomplete or inadequate apprehension. The sting in error lies in the fragmentariness of the truth comprehended. The error is not caused by an additional element of commission in error. The factors which give rise to error and cognitive failures are partial comprehension and omission of many aspects of the totality of the situation. According to acid-khyāti, which does not exist cannot be seen. The things that remain independent, even they are interrelated with other objects. Although, truth is the relation between knowledge and an object. The fallacious knowledge of silver in the nacre is not the knowledge of something unreal which does not exist. cid-acid khyāti,

In the theory of pancīkaraṇa (quintuplication) of Taitiriya, Chāndogya, and other Upanişads. According to pancīkaraṇa, Give material elements, namely, earth, water, fire, air, and space (panca-bhuta). One of them contains its own one-half and in addition, contains a one-eighth portion of the remaining four elements (bhutas) in it. In perception, for instance of silver in nacre, the apprehension (cognition) of a substrate (adhisthāna-jnāna) and the recollection of the silver perceived in the past elsewhere, can be described as bhrānti-jnāna (error). The error (bhrānti) thus is due to the non-awareness of the difference between these two cognitions. Svāminārāyaṇi epistemology does recognize the distinction between right knowledge (pramiti) and erroneous cognition (bhrānti). Thus the error is not a product anirvacaniya-avidyā. In this Vedanta, avidyā is not an indescribable mysterious power somehow associated with the jīva (the self) in the advaitic sense.

Svāminārāyaṇa accepts intrinsic validity and reality of all knowledge that apprehended by the knower. All knowledge is about a real object existing in the space time-cause-world. However, all knowledge is not necessarily pramiti (right knowledge because the knowledge that does not lead to successful activity (i.e. fecundity/utility to a knower, i.e. the knowledge which does not work in practical life/utility is certainly to be regarded as apramā or error.

Now, as noted earlier, every individual self (jivātman) is under the sway and spell of avidyā, karmic potency of the past and consequent vāsanā-forces. Therefore, his knowledge is imperfect, partial, or half-perfect as he is still a perfection-seeking person, especially in his attempts of comprehending the highest ontological Reality (Parabrahman).

All cognitions are real. The jnānaśakti i.e. dharmabhutajnāna of the jivātman is subject to obscuration and contraction because of its association with avidyā-karmavāsanās. Consequently, during its state in samsāra (worldly existence) the all-pervasiveness and purity of its (jīva’ s) jnānaśakti remain under stress and limitation. Therefore, the error arises. Since error occurs on account of avidyā-karma-vāsanās in the finite selves (jīvātmans), it, on the other hand, implies that the error never occurs in case of Parabrahman, Aksarabrahman and released souls (muktas) whose jnānaśakti is pure, fully expanded and omniscient. Their knowledge is always valid and their cognitions are all valid and true. Also in the case of jīva, there will not be any possibility of cognitive error (bhrama/ bhrānti) when its jnānaśakti becomes free from its state of obscuration and contraction. Secondly, the influence and operation of rajas and tamas is the cause of illusion (ayathārtha-jnāna) during jīva’s state of bondage. The errors, therefore, occur on account of defects in mind-sensory-motor organs or samskāradoșas (avidyā-karma-vāsanās).

The whole problem of error may be explained briefly as follows.

(i) Error is due to the obscured-contracted state of jnānaśakti of jīva during its embodied state.

(ii) When the determinate features of an object are not cognized and also its difference from some other object is not cognized, the error arises.

(iii) Error is a real experience due to a real cause. Cause and effect are both real. An act of thought is real, and the object apprehended by that act also is real. So, the error is part of reality.

(iv) Error arises either on account of extraneous factors of indriyadośas or on account of samskāradośas.

(v) Error is known and recognized as an error, and thus corrected finally when the pragmatic test of verification in terms of successful activity-utility fails.

In connection with the popular instance of 'silver-nacre' (śukti-rajata), in knowledge by perception, it may be said that -the perception of silver in nacre, the knowledge that it is silver, is not untrue/unreal, though silver portion seen in it does not lead to successful activity, nor usable as silver. Here what is to be remembered is the fact the knowledge of the generic-subtle nature of silver (in nacre) is true/real. and the knowledge that there is no particular gross nature of silver (in nacre) also is true/real.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vac. Gadh. 42 120