AruNandi's Deconstruction of Lokayata-1மரபு விக்கி இருந்துUlagankmy (பேச்சு | பங்களிப்புகள்) பயனரால் செய்யப்பட்ட 07:29, 1 பெப்ரவரி 2013 அன்றிருந்தவாரான திருத்தம் Translation with commentary by Dr K.Loganathan 2004
This may the AintiRam said of Tolkaappiyar meaning perhaps Tolkaappiyar was a beiever in a philosophy of Panca Buutaas. AruNandi begins his massive Parapakkam, the side of darsanas that are deconstructed first with the Lokayatas and then moves systematically towards Buddhism Jainism Vedism and so forth This method of philosophy is also quite ancient in Dravidian circles where even during the SaGkam period there were Paddi ManRams , halls of fierce debates for such purposes. In this treatise AruNandi provides a positive description of Lokayata doctrines in verses 12 to 32. Then he begins his devastating critique in the verses 33 to 63. I have translated all these verses and written my own commentaries both in Tamil and English using the traditional commentaries in Tamil as my guide. Loga
Civanjaan Cittiyaar : On Lokayata. The Philosophy fo the Lokayatas or Naturalists 12. உலகியல் இன்பங்களே இன்பங்கள் என்று வாழத்தரும் இந்திரனது புரோகிதன் இயம்பும் ஓர் நூலையே நூல் எனக்கொண்டு, ஆகமங்களாகிய தந்திர நூற்களை நல்லறிவினோடு இறையருளும் இல்லாமையால் , தகுந்த ஞான நூற்கள் எனாது , மகளிர்களை அணைத்து மகிழும் இன்பமே இன்பமதாக, நறு மணத்துச் சந்தனமும் அழகின் மணமாலைகளும் பூண்டு , வயிறு நிறைய உண்டு வாழ்வதே வாழ்க்கை என்றும் வாழும் உலகாயதன் தன் வாழ்க்கைக் கோட்பாட்டை இவ்வாறு கூறுவான்
The lokayatas or naturalists are those who follow the ways of the priest of Indra who believes only in earthly happiness. He does not recognize philosophies as expounded by the Agamas by virtue of the fact he does not have the necessary understanding as well as the grace of BEING. He goes around wearing sandal paste on his chest and wedding garlands on his neck ever thinking that only sexual happiness and happiness in dining and wining are the only sources of happiness. He expounds his philosophy as follows. 13. இனி மெய்ப்பொருள் யாதென்று அறிவதற்கு வரும் அளவை என்பது காட்சியே- அதாவது வாயிற்காட்சியே. மனத்தின் வழி எழுவதாய் இதுவும் விகற்பித்து ஐயக்காட்சி முதல் ஆறுவகைப்படும். இதற்கு மேற்பட்டு மெய்ப்பொருள் யாதென்று தெளிய அனுமானம் ஆகமம் என்பனபோன்ற அளவைகள் தேவை யில்லை. ஆகையால் மெய்ப்பொருளாவன ஐம்புலங்களால் அறியக்கூடிய மண் நீர் காற்று தீ ஆகியவைகளும் அவற்றின் இயல்பாக வரும் கடினம் குளிர்மை தொடுதற்கரிய வெப்பம் என்பவற்றோடு சலனமும் பொருட்கள் சேர்ந்திருத்தலும் பிரிந்திருத்தலுமாம். iiNdu aLavai kaadci manamaati irumuunRaay In order to ascertain the real objects only sensory perceptions are required as valid means of measure. The inductive and transductive perceptions are irrelevant. The valid sources of understanding are the sense perceptions originating from the manam, the brain processes connected with the senses and their six different types. And hence the real objects are Water Wind, Earth and Fire and the qualities of hardness coldness and hotness that is difficult touch , movements and the fusion and separations of these basic elements. Notes: The Lokayatas are very sophisticated naturalists like modern day scientists who believe only in instrumental readings and statistical analysis for ascertaining the reality of objects and their qualities. What is beyond being measured thus is NOT real or at least something that cannot be made an object of scientific study. For such people the notion of happiness cannot be anything beyond the materialistic and sexual. Their happiness is measured in terms of economic prosperity the exultation in sensual life in terms dining and wining etc. Cittiyaar Lokayata -2 14. Like different kinds of pots coming out from the same clay, so do all the things in the world -- they emerge out of different kinds of combinations of these basic elements, combinations that are conducive for the birth of such things. Included in this are the mind and the five senses as well as perceptions out of these senses. And all of them are transient just like the bubbles that emerge in the waters, they appear burst and disappear. The mind and the senses emerge when the basic elements combine in a certain way and when even one of them separates then the mind and senses become immediately dead too. So is the case with all objects in the world including the living creatures -- within the constraints of scientific laws they are products of suitable combinations of these basic elements and when at least one of them separate and disappear, the creatures die too. Understanding all objects , including the living creatures, along these lines constitutes scientific knowledge and hence all else unscientific. Notes: The naturalism or the physicalism of the Lokayata comes along with a certain theory of the mind , sensory perceptions and also about what life is. The theory outlined here is what is akin to Western theory about consciousness where it is taken to be a kind of epi-phenomena, an insubstantial stuff that comes to birth when certain neurophysiological conditions come to prevail. What is important here is that the Lokayatas are at pains to to show that there is nothing permanent , everything is transitory like the bubbles in the waters , formed in the current , burst and disappear. 17 உரை ippadi yinRi kanmam uyir iRai veeRu uNdenRu All the things are like the bubbles that emerge and disappear by the appropriate combinations of the four basic elements. And those who claim that there permanent objects such as Karma Soul and BEING and so forth are stating only fictions and falsities. Such claims are equivalent to saying: the son of a really barren woman climbed the horn of the rabbits and plucked the sky lotus. What wrong have the lokayatas done to listen to such nonsense? Notes: Here emerges the real intentions of the Lokayata metaphysics: the refusal to accept the reality of anything non sensorial and hence such invisible things as Karma, the souls and God. Any discourse on such things are said to be purely imaginary , talks of things that are mental fictions. 18 செய்திடும் கன்மமெல்லாம் செய்தவர் தம்மைப் பற்றி ஒருவன் செய்கின்ற செயல்கள் , அவை புண்ணியமாகவும் பாவமாகவும் ஆய்விட, அதற்கேற்ற பயன்கள் செய்தவர்தம் ஆன்மாவைப் பற்றி பிறகு இப்பிறப்பிலும் பிராரத்த கன்மமாய் வருபிறப்பிலும் நல்லவும் தீயவுமாக விளையும் என்றால், நீர்க்குமிழி வாழ்க்கையில் செய்தவுடனேயே எல்லாம் மாய்ந்துவிட வினைப்பயன்கள் பிறகு இப்பிறப்பிலும் வருபிறப்பிலும் வந்தெய்தும் என்பது எப்படி உண்மையாகும்? இனி தூலமாகத் தோன்றும் பருவுடலில் இந்த வினைப்பயன்கள் சூக்குமமாக ஆன்மாவின் புரியட்ட தேகத்தோடு நின்று வினைப்பயன்களாக உறும் என்னில், ஐயனே! எண்ணையும் திரியும் இருக்க எரியும் தீயின் ஒளி, அது அணைய அந்த ஒளி மீண்டும் கூடுமோ? கூடாது. அதுபோலத்தான் நீவிர் சொல்லும் இந்த கன்மக் கோட்பாடுமாம். ceytidum kanmamellaam ceytavar tammaip paRRi When actions are effected , depending upon their moral qualities, if it is said the consequences of these actions remain deposited in the soul of the person and appear as benign or evil happenings to him either later in life or in the subsequent rebirths as Piraarta Kanmam, then when everything in life disappear immediately after they are formed like bubbles in water, how can there be anything subsistent ? Now if you say that matters that stand gross now become subtle and hence invisible and such are action-consequences and they are carried over to the next birth thus , then it is equivalent to saying that the light of the flame reappears after the flame is extinguished. How can that be? Notes: Karma is something that is NOT transient like bubbles but something that persists across time underlying the historical evolution of creatures. When they are elicited by actions effected they are called Akamiyam, when some of them are carried to the next birth and fructify there , then it is praarttam, that which are carried over but do not fructify but remain dormant or latent in the soul is called the Canjcitam. One can consider them as mantric-traces acquired and deposited in the unconscious layers of the psyche , some of them reaching the puriyadda tekam, the mantra-body that remains the essence of the anma. The cuukkumai form is this mantra-type traces and it is being denied here by the Lokayata in terms of his theory of object impermanence. If all objects are impermanent like bubbles in the waters, how can there be such a thing as Karma, understood as above? மாய்ந்து பின் வயலில் இட்டவை தழை பலிக்குமா போல் இனி வயலில் இடும் இலைதழைகள் அழுகி தன்மைக் கெட்டு பிறகு நல்ல உரமாக மாறி பயிர்கள் நலமே வளர்வதற்கு உதவுவது போல் செய்யக்கூடிய நல்வினைகள் கெட்டு உருமாறி உரம் போல் பின் வாழ்க்கையை தழைக்கச் செய்யும் என்னில், இதுவும் பொருந்துவதில்ல. பசியால் தளர்ந்து வரும் ஒருவன் உண்ணும் நல்லதான சோறு தனது தரம் அற்றுபோனால், அது வயிற்றில் எதற்கும் உதவாது போம் மலமாக ஆகிறதைக் கண்டாய். ஆக நல் வினைகள் உண்டு என்பதும் அவற்றின் நல்லதுதான் ஆகவேண்டுமென்பதில்லையாம். maayntu pin vayalil iddavai tazai palikkumaa pool Notes: The doctrine of Karma that is criticized here proposes that they are action-consequences , good if ethical and evil if unethical. The good consequences remain as traces in the soul and fructify later as good happenings. The critique is concerned with the claim that good-actions , the puNNiyam are like the cut branches and leaves that are buried in a wet field so that they would decay but get transformed into good manure so that the seeds planted in that enriched soil would grow up into healthy plants. The critique points out that this need not be so as the good ingested food becomes the injurious faeces on being digested. 20. உரை If it is said that there is coordination in the physical body assumed and the intellect enjoyed as shown by actions effected and this is so only because of the presence of Karma that ensures this, then there is a problem. For then it would follow that a creature has acquired the five-fingered hands as a result of effecting actions in the previous births when it was insufficiently intelligent. However how is that now, in the presnt birth, the fingers are quite different among themselves? This difference is better explained in terms of difference in the percentages of the basic elements that go into their genesis. Notes: Saivism believes in the evolution of creatures from the lower state into higher but NOT in the Darwinian sense i.e. as a result of mechanical adaptation to the environment with the intention to survive. In Saivism actions are either ethical or unethical, the PuNNiyam and Paavam and in which the PuNNiyam type of action, if effected elucidate karmic-traces that would bring about a higher level creature being i.e. evolution into the higher species. Thus this evolution is Karma coordinated and hence also a coordination between bodily structure , cognitive capacities and the effectuation of actions. For example speech is possible only when a certain kind of body with a certain kind of cognitive capacity become available and hence the effectuation of speech acts, i.e. acting out through language. 6 21. Notes: The feelings and emotions constitute the essence of psychic life. Saivism recognises the uniqueness and the absolute status of the soul. The soul is distinct and unique , distinct even from BEING but alike with BEING in being also sentient. Thus the anma or the soul is Cittup PoruL, a sentient entity and hence categorically different from the insentinet water stone air fire and so forth. And what is distinctive of the soul is that there are feelings and emotions and these feelings and emotions can be plesant or unpleasant. It is stated that Karma the action-consequences deposited in the unconscious or at the deepest recesses of the psyche fructify, when they do and if at all, as experiences that are pleasant or unplesant depending upon the nature of the Karma that fructifies. If related to the ethical kind of actions then happiness producing; if unethical then misery producing. In other words the happiness and miseries are products of one actions. The implication is that if a person persists in doing actions that are the ethical-type he will NOT suffer anything that would bring about miseries. 7. 22. உரை 22. The body that creatures enjoy is physical and is generated out of the four basic elements. What is called the soul is just the mental processes that are qualities of these basic elements. Now if you say that there is such a thing as seeing (as distinct from sensing) and that which sees is the anma, this certainly is a believe arising from mental confusion. For if the anma as distinct from the bodily qualities is there as something real then it must be available for sensing through the five senses and the mind that functions with them But this is not so hence it is equivalent to saying that the boundary of a country is the horns of the hare i.e. something non existent. NOTES: Now begins the denial of the reality of the anma, the psychic entity which is said to be a pure imagination, a fiction of an aberrant mind because it is UNAVAILABLE for sensory perception . In other words the statement that "There is anma as distinct from the body" is equated with statements such as " The boundary of this country is the horns of a hare" etc. |