AruNandi's Deconstruction of Lokayata-3மரபு விக்கி இருந்துUlagankmy (பேச்சு | பங்களிப்புகள்) பயனரால் செய்யப்பட்ட 07:35, 1 பெப்ரவரி 2013 அன்றிருந்தவாரான திருத்தம் AruNandi's Deconstruction of Lokayata. Translation with commentary by Dr K.Loganathan 2004
Understanding is Ekstatic In the History of world religions and philosophy, the Tamil Saivism holds a unique place in that it is the only system that is simultaneously philosophical, that which justifies the religious way of life not on the basis of the authority of revealed scriptures, messiahs rishies and so forth but on the basis of hermeneutic study of the natural and developing Human Understanding in that way so that metaphysical truths come to be accepted and religious way of life condoned. Every understanding has its own applications and having the understanding of the truth and reality of the deities that configure world events including the personal, the religious way of life becomes the natural APPLICATION of such an understanding. In the philosophical level, i.e. the Nnjaana Paatai, they also have introduced a METHOD that remains peculiarly Saivite to this day viz. the method of DECONSTRUCTION, which is not the ‘destruction' of Heidegger, Gadamer and other Philosophical Hermeneuts or the ‘deconstruction' of Derrida and other Radical Hermeneuts. For here the object is not negative but rather the positive one of bringing out the TRUTH where it remains concealed, distorted, obfuscated and so forth. The Saivite culture allows maximum freedom for intellectual expression but at the same time seek to deconstruct whatever thus emerges so that untruths do not get lodged as part of the ongoing culture. Having expounded how AruNandi had deconstructed the Sautrantikas Buddhism (still not uploaded but available in the archives of akandabaratam etc) I now venture to expound how he deconstructed the Lokayatas whose philosophy resembles the modern materialists and which is available as the first part of the massive Sivanjana Siddhyar (13th cent) உலாகயதன் மத மறுதலை The Deconstruction of Lokayata 33. உரை: uLLataavatu kaNdatenRu urai koNdatu en? ulakattu nii Meaning I am not clear on what grounds you have taken as true the statement that only things that are seen through the senses are real while all else unreal. Your parents who gave birth to you but died while you were still young, their life being snatched away by the invisible God of Death are no more objects that can be apprehended by the senses. But nevertheless now as a young man you assume they existed in the past and remember them very fondly. Now doesn't this kind of thinking disclose that within the historical you also subscribe to the possibility of affirming the reality of the currently nonexistent objects through inferential 34. உரை: idittu minni iruNdu meekam ezunta pootu itu peyyumenRu Meaning When you see the dark clouds in the sky along with lightning and thunder, you anticipate rains and conclude so. Furthermore while it may not be raining where you stand but on looking at the river with flood waters carrying such trees as akil sandal and so forth you deduce that there must have been heavy rains in the hills from which the river flows and where grow these trees. Such deductions are NOT false but however they are NOT conclusions arrived at through DIRECT sensory perceptions but rather inferential or deductive in nature. The Lokayata in proclaiming that only the CURRENT events that are available for sensory perception are REAL, deny in fact the HISTORICITY of human understanding within which we all operate. This is a FACT of human understanding and which is NOT acknowledged by the Lokayatas. This disconstruction seeks to DISCLOSE the partial BLINDNESS within which the Lokayatas operate and through that make them SEE their own blindness. Saiva Disconstruction of Lokayata-2 Understanding Involves Interpretations Right from ancient days in India, and thanks to the astute Buddhists philosophers who initiated new kinds of studies into perception, the relationship between sensing and consciousness (or njaanam) has been a matter of great controversy. Lokayata here admit understanding in ekstatic (with thanks to Heidegger here) i.e. involves the temporal notions of the past present and future. This is the givenness of normal human understanding that MeykaNdar, AruNandi's Guru, would call CudduNarvu, the the-tic consciousness, the awareness of objects as this and that and which presupposes a referential frame. To this AruNandi points out that the leap from the sensorial to an understanding and hence consciousness is NOT sensorial at all for such an understanding is a matter of INTERPRETATIONS or what Tolkaappiyar would call the exercise of Utties. While an object can give rise to the same sensorial processes among different individuals but it does NOT follow that all them will have the SAME UNDERSTANDING. Different individuals can understand the SAME SENSE-OBJECT differently and this shows the workings of interpretive processes and hence something inferential. 35 உரை: kaaNdaloo anumaanam aavatum kaadci munnatum kaadciyeel Meaning Now while there is such thing as historical understanding, the understanding of the past that the hermeneuts claim, is after all sensorial only that they are perceptions that have become a matter of the past, and hence there are no inferential processes over and the sensorial-- thus says the Lokayatas. However let me ask you: you have granted that there is such a thing as 'understanding' ; now tell me how do you come to this conclusion? My view is that it is through a process induction, a species of the inferential . The physical stimuli that impinge upon the senses are processed by the cognitive mechanisms of the mind and because of which there is understanding and consciousness. Thus the notion that there is understanding even now is after all inferential, it is going beyond the sensory stimulations. So is also the case with the conclusions you have made about the physical bodies -- that they are generated from the five fold basic elements. Comments: However Arunandi considers now the PRESENT that is also a part of the historical understanding and the basic fact that UNDERSTANDING as such is acknowledged even by the Lokayatas. The point Arunandi makes is that, the understanding that exists even now is NOT purely sensorial and that it is generated only because of the INTERPRETIVE processes of the mind. There are various kinds of stimuli that impinge upon the senses and they will remain purely physical stimuli unless they are PROCESSED as such and INTERPRETED as being this and that. Such interpretive processes are a species of the inferential or inductive as they involve going beyond the physically given. The conclusion that there is such a thing as understanding and to which is related consciousness or njaanam and being inductive a kind of anumaanam, or inference. It is also claimed that Lokayatas' central doctrine of Physicalism, that all bodies are ultimately generated from the four basic elements of earth fire water and wind , is also similar, something that presupposes inductive kind of thinking though the Lokayatas remain blind to it. \\ The Future Can be Seen Right Now There is a fundamental difference between ‘seeing' and ‘sensing'. While sensing is passive where what reaches the senses are faithfully recorded and become elements of eidetic memory that lasts only for second, seeing involves interpreting or reading such sensory inputs to make sense of what becomes available. And among such seeing, there is the seeing of FUTURE not as projection but actually going across TIME and SEEING what would happen sometime in future. Even ordinary individuals capable of ordinary dreams and lucid dreams are capable of such seeing that the Saivites ascribe to the Third Eye, the Njanak kaN. The ability of people to have visions of the future (and which is studied now as elements of Parapsychology in the West) and which is the substance of most of the dreams, is brought in here by AruNandi to show how limited is the notion of perception of the Lokayatas who equate it with sensing and cognitive processing of the sensed. 36. உரை: pazutilaa maRai kaNda nuul pazu tinRi uNdatu paarin meel Meaning: There are many texts that describe the concealed truths seen through the faultless vision of the third Eye i.e. transductive perceptions . Some such texts are prophetic and announce right now the yet to happen as a historical reality. There are also astrological predictions which when understood properly seem to be quite accurate in their predictions. There are also some Agamas that accurately point out the location of hidden treasures and many have been successful in such attempts. Such phenomena related to transductive perceptions point out that not all perceptions are sensorial and hence incapable reaching into the future. Think about this. Historical understanding, as we have already seen is ekstatic -- structured by the temporal notions of past present and future. Here AruNandi is at pains to show a way of seeing as ancient as Human Culture itself -- the ability of the mind to reach into future through a distinct species of seeing that is termed by AruNandi himself later in the book as Yogak Kaadci, the Yogic Way of seeing which is also termed Vinjnjanak kaadci in some other Saiva texts. The Deconstruction of Dialectical Materialism There is a kind of Dialectical Materialism proposed by the Lokayatas AruNandi was acquainted with and where every object is said to be a dialectical production of the basic physical elements Earth Water Wind and Fire, a notion that also gets mentioned in Tolkaappiyam (but where even Vicumpu (Space) is also included). ( Sutra 1589: nilan tii niir vaLi vicumpodu aintuG, kalanta mayakkam ulakam: the world is compound formed out of the basic elements of Earth Fire Water Wind and Space). The Space is excluded by the Lokayatas here as it is deemed non-sensory. But what has this to do with the deconstruction of Dialectical Materialism? The world as a whole and everything in it is Tripraxistic and hence unnatural for if it is natural then what comes to be there as such should continue to be there always; there should NOT be such a thing as DEATH or DESTRUCTION. So behind the world processes understood as belonging to Historical Flux, where there is the birth of one at the death of another, there is Global Intentionality behind it all and hence the presence of BEING from whom emerges this Global Intentionality and because of which all objects are tripraxistic. More below. 37. உரை: 37. Meaning: Lokayata! I do not understand how you can maintain that the physical elements Earth Water Wind and Fire are indestructible and eternal. For theses elements are always seen in the world to mix together and assuming a form come into birth as a particular object , be there and finally get destroyed pointing out the presence of a causative agent behind it all. This is analogous to the production of pots and pans by potters using clay and the wheel. Now if you say that such a causative agent is impossible in connection with the natural objects as opposed to manufactured such as bubbles in waters , you should know that these bubbles are produced by the processes in the running waters. Comments Having pointed out human understanding is historical, goes into the past and through capacities for transductive perceptions reach into the future and hence SEEING is different from SENSING, now AruNandi attends to the dialectical materialism of a kind of the Lokayatas who maintain that everything is constituted by the physical elements and that there are NO psychic or spiritual elements at all in the world. This is the ontology of the materialists where only the sensorial constitutes the real. In order to deconstruct this notion AruNandi points out the PRODUCTIVE or GENERATIVE nature of the things in the world, that they always come with a structure function and form. Such elements constitute the PARTICULARS and all such entities are impermanent and which is something observable in relation to all physical objects with the senses only. Such a person has a certain INTENTION in his mind and which serves his initiating a certain kind of action and guiding it all along so that the productive process are such that they are in the direction of FULFILLING his intentions. He has in his mind the production of a certain kind of pot and because of which he collects the clay , brings the wheel and produces the pot shaping it all along in such a way it becomes what he has mind. The productive PRAXIS of the potter are ultimately INTENTIONAL and thus are beyond dialectical materialism. The pot is NOT produced by accidental combinations of physical elements -- the dialectics of brute physical elements. Such is also the case even with the natural objects such as the trees hills rivers rocks and so forth. Though in connection with the natural objects the producer is not visible for the senses but such a agent can be INFERRED as there by a process of inducting from the given and interpretively move towards the ground archeoductively. Consciousness is NOT an Epi-phenomenon The materialists now and in the past are noted to practice a REDUCTIONISM, reducing even the psychical into the physical and this is what is deconstructed in this verse. When the Lokayatas say that an Agent behind the natural processes and as the source of the Global Intention that is taken to prevail the whole of Nature is NOT necessary , as the productions and disintegration of things can be taken something like the formation and destruction of bubbles in a whirlpool, AruNandi points out that even here, the non intelligent remains non intelligent, the bubble all of a sudden does not become a microorganism or a primitive kind of living thing etc. To this we can add some recent studies related to Out of Body Experiences where some near-death patients recall the moments where they could see their own body being operated upon and so forth just before reentering the body and becoming normal. 38. உரை: இனி ஒன்றழிய ஒன்று தோன்றும் என்பதை மறுக்க பொருட்கள் அனைத்தும் நீரில் எழும் குமிழ்போல் தோன்றி நின்று அழியும், கர்த்தா வேண்டுவது அன்று என்கின்றாய். ஆயின் விசாரிக்குமிடத்து, நீரின் கண்ணே தோன்றும் குமிழியும் நீராகவே நிற்பதன்றி அதற்கு பொருளளவில் வேறாகிய அறிவாக உயர்வதைக் கண்டிலம். மேலும் அறிவு என்பது நூறும் காயும் சேர்ந்த விடத்து எழுகின்ற சிவப்பு வண்ணம் போல் எழுமொன்று என்கிறாய். அதுவும் பொருந்துவதல்ல , ஏனெனில், சிவப்புச் சேர்வை யாண்டும் அச்சேர்வையிலிருந்து பிரிவது கண்டிலம். ஆயின் அறிவு பிரிந்து இல்லாது போக உடம்பு இன்னும் தொடர்ந்து இருப்பதை (மரணத்தின் போது) காண்கிறோம். ஆகவே எவ்வாற்றினும் அறிவு எனப்படுவது பூதக் கலவையின் எழுவது என்னும் கூற்று பழுதுடையதுவே யாம். niirin vantezu koppuL niiratuvaay ezum puutamum Meaning: Now in order to avoid the notion of historical flux, if it is said that the objects are like the bubbles in the whirlpool that simply arise disintegrate and disappear, we say that this does not apply. For even the bubbles are still made of waters and ontologically still remain physical, do not become something intelligent. Now if you say that consciousness is like the color red that arises when calcium is mixed with beetle leaves, then again it is not appropriate. For such physical phenomenon remain entirely physical, the red is obtained invariably when the physical combination prevails. Such is NOT the case with consciousness -- we can see the disappearance of consciousness even while the body is still there ( as it happens when a person dies) Comments: The Lokayatas deny the hermeneutic foundations of human understanding which is presupposed in the notion of historical flux, the notion that there is DECONSTRUCTION in nature where at the point of annihilating one there is the birth of another thus constituting a historical continuity. The deconstruction in nature is that which forms our historical understanding -- that which is annihilated becomes the historical past and that which is given birth to becomes the present, the ongoing , the current. Human understanding is historical in this sense and that's what that is being denied here by comparing the production of objects in the world to the bubbles that emerge in the whirlpools. AruNandi points out that this analogy does not hold for the birth of INTELLIGENCE and hence the presence of CONSCIOUSNESS is NOT comparable at all to the processes underlying the formation of bubbles. For bubbles though different in shape , nevertheless remain categorically physical while the birth of intelligence as in the birth of animals and plants there is a categorical shift, the birth of conscious elements from the non conscious. The biological issues should not be confused with the purely physical.
The biological processes in the living bodies of creatures have a dynamics of their own and which cannot be explained in terms of the mechanical. For as AruNandi points out in this verse, the mechanical is INVARIABLE- the red stuff on the combination of beetle leafs, calcium and areca nuts is INVARIABLY produced and which is NOT the case with living things where there is an EMERGENT quality. The lower living creatures tend to EVOLVE into higher where the sense channels not available before come to prevail. Here certainly AruNandi presupposes the studies of Tolkaappiyar where he classified animals in terms of the senses they come to have and hence develop greater competence for understanding nature - from onRu aRivatu (the plants with the sense of touch only) to snails and so forth, the iraNdu aRivatu. i.e. with the additional sense to taste etc. (sutra 1526). Thus there is Disclosive Evolution, the living creatures coming to enjoy higher forms of intelligence with more sense available for understanding nature. 39 உரை: 39. Meaning: Oh you Lokayata who deny the need for BEING by assuming a mechanical view of the world, listen! You assume that the production of objects in the world are akin to the emergence of the color red that is generated when calcium , beetle leafs and areca nuts are made to mix and combine. But such physical phenomena are MECHANICAL, there is invariably the emergence of the red stuff on the combination of these. However when we look at the human bodies, it is NOT so. At different times there is the emergence of the difference senses ( among the evolutionarily different species), different kinds of intelligence and aptitudes. How do you explain this non mechanical feature? You should acknowledge that there is BEING behind it all as the AGENT just as a person is required to bring together the calcium beetle leaves and areca nuts. Comments AruNandi here is at pains to alert the materialists on the non mechanical aspects of reality and hence the need to acknowledge the presence of BEING as the AGENT of all and which is acknowledged only within the hermeneutical way of looking at the world. The world seen purely as physical is also seen as MECHANICAL, where everything can be explained with mathematical precision and where everything can be understood as instances of universal LAWS of Nature. It is assumed that there is NOTHING that cannot be explained in terms of such laws of probabilities and so forth. Now against this it is being pointed out that the PSYCHICAL is beyond such mechanical processes and that they are INTRUSIONS into the physical having laws and dynamics of their of their own requiring a QUALITATIVE and NOT a quantitative approach to understand them.Their presence is shown in the different senses the different species have , the different intelligence they are capable of and different aptitudes they show towards the mastery of the social and physical environment. The Logos and the Biological and Hermeneutic Differences The Lokayatas, in order avoid accepting the presence of BEING into their ontology, deny Karma (unlike the Buddhists here) and assume that the production of various physical objects as well the presence of different kinds of living things with each species having motivational dynamics of its own like sexual desires and so forth are products of the ‘dialect' of physical objects, random variations with Earth Water Wind and Fire interacting in various ways and producing all these. The spider's web emerges from the body of the spiders and in that manner issues forth all these, one physical body begetting another in which we can also include the living things with their various psychological pressures within. 40. உரை இனி உயிர்த்தோற்றங்களின் வேறுபாடுகளை நிறுத்தும் கன்மம் என்று ஒன்றில்லை என்று கூறும் உலோகயதா! , முன்பு இல்லாதிருந்து, பூதச் சேர்க்கையால் வரும் ஊனில், ஐம்பொறிகள் தூக்கம் அச்சம் மைதுனம் போன்ற மெய்ப்பாடுகள் காமவேட்கையின் எழு கலவி இஇன்பம் போன்றவை சிலந்தி தன் உடம்பிலிருந்து உண்டாகும் நூலைப் போல , உதிக்கும் என்று கூறுகின்றாய். இப்படி எனில் உயர்தினை அஃறிணை என்ற உயிர்களின் பாகுபாடும் மேலும் உயர்திணையுள் ஆண் பெண் அலி என்ற பாட்பேதங்களும் , மற்றும் பல்வேறு வகை உயிரினங்கள் இருக்க அதனின் யோனிப் பன்மையும் இல்லை, அனைத்தும் பூதங்களின் சேர்க்கையால் ஆகும் விகற்பங்கள் என்றே ஆகும் என்பதைக் காண்க aana aimpoRi uNdi nittirai accam maitunam aatiyaay
Meaning: The creatures are different in terms of the cognitive capacities as conditioned by senses -- five four three and one in that order. And this difference , related to the understanding cannot arise simply by the differences in the combinations of the physical elements. The presence of mantras (that are non physical) and which constitute these differences in intelligence will not be accounted for. The differences in the cognitive capacities that come with intellect and to which are related cognitive enjoyments, aptitudes and so forth cannot be generated simply by brute physical elements. In order to account for such differentiations we have to see that there is karma and that creatures are such only because of it. Comments: Here again emerges the differences between the Flat view of the Lokayatas who do not subscribe to the TEXTUAL character of objects and Saiva Siddhanta which does. It has been known at least from the days of Tolkaappiyam (~ 300 B.C.) that the living creatures are countless in number ( yooni peetam) and that there is an EVOLUTIONARY difference among them noted in terms of the differences in the cognitive capacities they enjoy. There are creatures with only one sense, that of touch, and others with TWO , the sense of touch and taste and so forth. The highest is said to enjoy the SIX senses in which the MIND is also included as a sense. Along with these differences in cognitive competencies come the SEXUAL differentiations into Male Female and the Hermaphrodite -- differentiations that are also psychologically important in the sense that they underlie the differences in Taste Aptitudes Feelings and so forth. The materialist view that all these differences emerge because of the random variations in the combinations and permutations of the four purely and brutish physical elements is seen as a theory that fails to ACCOUNT for such observable features of life and hence immensely inadequate as a theory for making sense of reality as it it, without effecting a reductionism of kind, obfuscating the difference between intelligence and brutishness. A case in point is Language understood here in a very broad sense, the LOGOS as constituted by the mantras, the vannam. The different creatures have DIFFERENCES in intelligence and differences in their capacities for UNDERSTANDING the world and this requires the admission of different kinds of mantra-complexes operating on the creatures and generating different physical forms and bodily and cognitive facilities that are consonant with them. AruNandi maintains that this difference in the workings of mantras require also that we note the presence of such a thing as KARMA operating within these mantra-complexes. Intentionality and the Reality of the External World The Lokayatas maintain that consciousness is an epi-phenomenon, a product of a ‘dialect' of brute insentient fundamental physical elements -the Earth Water Wind and Fire. Thus what we have is a REDUCTINONISM, the distinct category of Intelligence as such being reduced to a product of non-intelligent entities and thereby dispensing with the need to acknowledge the soul, BEING etc that are intelligent or sentient, things capable of consciousness. 42. உரை: aRivu puutamatu ennil veeRu puRattu aRintamai kaNdilam Meaning: Lokayata! You say that intelligence is just another one of physical products generated by the combination of the basic physical elements. Then how do you explain that living creatures are INTENTIONAL and in that they perceive something as a " that" and which is external to themselves? Now if you deny this externality and say that such mental processes are internal (biophysiological) and happen within the body , then how to you explain that at the point of death while the body is still intact there is no intelligence as such? Now if you say such consciousness related processes become unavailable because of the departure of the WIND, then how do you explain the fact that during deep sleep while there is still breathing but there is NO consciousness? Comments: This constitutes one of the fundamental objections of AruNandi to the materialism of the Lokayatas which is essentially REDUCTIONISTIC, the denying of the categorical and ontological difference between intelligence and non-intelligence, a distinction that is accommodated with the hermeneutical way of looking at things. The hermeneuts would see the living things as TEXTS in which the psychological would be seen as the Deep Structure and the biophysical as the Surface Structure. While it is true that INTELLIGENCE as such cannot be understood as there independent of the physical embodiments, categorically they are NOT the same. For the living creatures are characterized by INTENTIONALITY and they do not simply sense objects in the world but SEE them , a process that requires grasping as it is something outside themselves. Of course such phenomena have biophysical correlates -- brain processes of various kinds in which the information that reach the brain through the five senses are processed and an object is recognized as such and such. But all such perceptions emerge as "a tree over there" ' a pain in my foot " etc. A close examination of such processes indicate that perceiving is NOT simply translating the sensorial inputs into object identities. There is a SELECTION mechanism at work and unless such selections are operative there , the singling out and synthesizing a mass of sensory input into that as pertaining to a particular object will NOT take place. And when we look at the SELECTIVE mechanisms we can see that it is psychical, there is actually a psyche, a non-material spiritual thing which does all these. The INTENTIONALITY is that which makes the psychic entities go beyond the internal psychobiological processes and grasp an object in the world and as in the world and hence outside the internal cognitive processes that disclose its presence. That seeing as such is psychical and NOT merely psychobiological is shown by pointing out that when a person is dead, the body is there intact but seeing is no more and hence also perceiving. The dead person does not perceive despite the presence of all the biophysical mechanisms. Now Lokayata in admitting the presence of INTENTIONALITY, try to explain it away by saying that it simply the function of the WIND that which is the cause of the breathing processes, the inhaling and exhaling, the fundamental biophysical processes that maintain LIFE as such. As against this AruNandi notes that while during deep sleep while breathing goes on as usual , there is ABSENCE of conscious prehension, the functioning of INTENTIONALITY even as dreams. We have here a situation where there is breathing for the person is NOT dead but nevertheless is NOT conscious and hence experiencing anything INTENTIONAL including the dreaming which may indirectly be related to intentionality. This shows that the proposed correlation between breathing and consciousness does not hold.
The different attempts of the Lokayatas to explain the presence of intelligence as a dialectic of physical processes as above and therefore annul the categorical distinction between the cit and acit, the intelligent and non-intelligent things in the world has been disconstructed. But the above views hinged on the individual functioning of various components in the body especially the breathing and which presupposes the active functioning of the Wind and becomes absent at the point of death. When the Wind departs from the body, breathing ceases to be and hence death comes to prevail and with that the absence of the intelligent functioning of creatures even though all the different biological organs are there. 43 உரை: இனி அறிவு என்பது உடலிலுள்ளே நிகழும் பல்வேறு பூதச் செயல்களின் வழி எழுவதல்ல, மற்று ஓர் உடம்பாக உருவெடுத்து முழுசாக நிற்கும்போது, ஓர் சமுதாயவுணர்வாக எழும் என்று நீ கூறுகின்றாய். அப்படியென்னில் அளவில் மிகப் பெரிதான யானைமுதல் எறும்பு ஈறாக உடல்கள் தோன்ற அதனின் காரணமாக அறிவும் பெரிதாகவும் சிறிதாகவும் இருக்கவேண்டும். பெரியவுடல் யானைக்குப் பெரிய அறிவும் சிறிய வுடல் எறும்பிற்கு சிறிய அறிவும் இருக்கவேண்டும். ஆனால் நடைமுறையில் இவ்வாறு அறிவு என்பது உடல் அளவோடு தொடர்புற்று இருப்பதை ஓர் பொது உண்மையாகக் கண்டிலம். மேலும் இவ்வுடல்கள் சிறிதாகவும் பெரிதாகவும் பரிணாமம் பெறுவதையும் காண்கின்றோம். ஆகையால் இப்படி உயிரினங்களின் உடல் பெரிதாகவும் சிறிதாகவும் பரிணாமம் உறுதற்கு ஓர் முல காரணம் இருக்கவேண்டுமே , அது யாதென்று கூறுவாயாக! aRivudaR kuNamennil aanaiyatu aati antam eRumpataa Meaning: Now because of the incapacity (of the materialistic notions to explain the phenomenon of death at which point consciousness is totally absent and that of deep sleep or swoon in which while there is breathing there is no self-consciousness) you Lokayata may say that Consciousness arises only because of the ORGANIZATION feature of the physical body of the creatures . Now this would mean that the creatures with large bodies like elephants and those with small bodies like the ants would have higher and lower kind of intelligence. The SIZE of the physical body must correlate with intelligence being more or less evolved but this NOT the case in the world. Furthermore the fact that creatures has bodies of different sizes is also something that needs to be explained. Can you explain this (without recourse to the notion of Karma?) ‘Comments: The Hermeneutic perspective within which AruNandi operates enables him to disconstruct another view of the Lokayatas with respect to explaining the presence of intelligence in living creatures. The view that consciousness is a product of biophysical structure of the body was disconstructed by presenting the fact that at the point of death, something happens whereby there is NO MORE intelligence and hence consciousness while the biophysical organs may remain intact, at least in most cases of death. This led to noting intelligence as something arising because of psychophysical processes that are ultimately related to the breathing processes. But against this it was pointed out that while during deep sleep ( or in the state of swoon and so forth), the psychophysical processes particularly breathing while active there is nevertheless no consciousness. Karma and Evolution The Lokayatas do not admit the Karmic regulation of the genesis of creature bodies and intelligence. Above it was shown that there is no strict correlation between body size and intelligence, the bodily small can be more intelligent than the bodily large. உரை: 44.
Now the Lokayata continues to defend his view that Consciousness is a quality of the physical body. Within this notion the different body sizes and they not correlating with intelligence in explained thus: when in the genesis of a body if the percentage of intelligence-stuff ( considered as a material evolute) is larger than the physical-stuff then we have creatures with higher intelligence but small physical bodies. In the same manner when the converse happens then we have creatures with large bodies and lower intelligence. But this is problematic for there are no laws or some kind of causality underlying these differences. The creatures with large bodies do not on their own accord become creatures with small bodies. And also the converse. Underlying these changes there must be Karma that regulates these developments. And if there are NO such factors regulating the evolutionary developments, then all creatures will persist with the bodies they already have. The problem now shifts to the evolutionary dynamics of creatures, which according to Saiva Siddhanta requires the notion of Karma as that which regulates and because of which we have the differences in the kinds of intelligences and bodies that creatures enjoy. The Saivites understand that the psychic entities EVOLVE and this evolution into creatures of higher intelligence is something dependent on Karma, i.e. the deposits of action-outcomes in the present course of life. Thus creatures attain a higher kind of birth and hence cognitive mechanisms and bodies consistent with it as regulated by the traces of actions lodged in the deeper recesses of the psyche and which is termed as karma. The Lokayata deny this view and provide explanation of the matter as follows: There are TWO kinds of material stuff : the mental-stuff and physical-stuff and they can combine in various proportions and it is these differences in the proportions these two different kinds of stuff combine that determine the differences in the evolutionary developments Now as an extension of this view we can reason along the following lines: creatures very primitive in evolutionary ladder like the single cell amoebae and so forth have small amounts of both say compared to ants and termites and such other creatures . And among the mammals it may be that the amount of mental-stuff may be more than the physical for man and the converse for elephants and so forth. Evolution and Biological Differentiation into Male and Female The Lokayatas bring in the notion of ‘iyalbu', the essence of things to be such and such. It is the essence of objects to evolve as such and Karma as mantra-scripts cannot be brought in to explain the dynamics. For it being insentient physical stuff such script or codes cannot interact with the anmas as they are psychical - the physical cannot interact with the psychical. உரை: கன்மம் என்பது அறிவற்ற சடப்பொருளாகலின் அது அறிவுடை ஆன்மாக்களை தாக்காது போம் என்பதின், இஇவ்வாறு உயிர்கள் பலவாறாக பிறப்பெடுப்பதற்கு காரணம் அவற்றின் இஇயல்பு என்று உலகாயதா நீ கூறுவது நன்று. ஆயினும் இயல்பு என்னின் ஒரு தன்மைப்பட்டு அதேப் போன்று தொடர்வதேயாகும். அப்படியென்னில் ஆன்மாக்கள் ஆண் பெண் என பால்வழி வேறுப்பட்டு உலகில் நிலவாது போகும். இனி இவ்வாறு பிறப்பது பூதகாரியமே என்னில் , இவ்வாறு ஆண் பெண் என ஒருவருக்கு ஒருவர் பொருந்திய முறையில் இணைந்து வாழும் பண்பில் பிறப்பதென்னை என்று கூறுவாயாக. இவற்றிற்கெலாம் மூலமாக ஓர் ஆன்மாவின் தன் அஞ்ஞானம் போக்கும் வகையால் செய்யப்படும் வினைகளால் உறும் கன்மமும் அந்த கன்மத்திற்கேற்ப இறைவன் வகுக்கின்ற வழியின் காரணமாக அமைகின்றவை என்று கொள்வதே பொருத்தமாக, இவ்வுலகியல் இக்கூறு பூதகாரியமும் அல்லை பூதவியல்பும் அல்லையாயிற்று. 45 The Lokayatas are not to deterred by the evolutionary explanations of creature genesis offered as evidence for the reality of Karma as such. For even if assumed to be so, it also follows that Karma is NOT a unitary stuff but something that DIFFERENTIATES in various ways to generate the variety of bodies we see in the world. Furthermore, Karma being physical even as mantra-complexes, cannot interact with the psychical and cause their births in so many different ways. The physical cannot interact with the mental. Love is Spiritual and NOT Physical In the following two verses, AruNandi points out that the Sexual Love that exists between human beings (and perhaps also among all living creatures) is not simply a product of the dialectics of brute insentient basic elements like Fire Earth Air and Water. Within the biological there emerges the spiritual and only within that the sentiment of LOVE that attracts a man and woman together, make them cohabit and through sexual union bring forth children and thus Cantana Viritti, the species regeneration. The dynamics of Human Love at least, cannot be explained purely in terms of various kinds of secretions of enzymes and other chemicals though such processes may accompany the processes of falling in love and copulating. However as empirical studies would show (as it has been studied extensively in Tolkaappiyam) it is not that easy to discover the RULES underlying the phenomena of LOVE as such even though men have tried from very ancient to discover such rules and thereby regulate even married life. They sought various kinds of Poruttam, suitability, in terms psychological traits, physiological traits (samudrika latcanam) and astrological compatibilities. But all such determinations seem to be inconclusive, the secrets of why people fall in love and how some of them succeed in enjoying a happy married while others don't' seem to DEFY any rule-like law-like determinations. For AruNandi this feature of love life seems to point to the reality of the spiritual dimensions over and above the physical, biological and psychological. At the deepest level inhere BEING as Man and Woman, and as already noted by Tolkaappiyar, it is as the Play of BEING that a man falls in love with a woman and so forth. 46. உரை: 46 kaaraNam avaiyenRatu ennai kadaati pool nikaz kaariyam Meaning: Lokayata! You maintain that it is unnecessary to say it is BEING who feeds the Karma in accordance with the actions effected and because of which we have sexual differences among the creatures and reproductive processes along with it, and maintain that like pots and pans, the reproductive processes are physical in that the basic physical elements come to mix in appropriate measures and emerge as a creature. But however this is NOT something observable in the world. Furthermore you maintain that physical elements are attracted to each other by gravitational forces and mixing thus create the offspring . But again this is unacceptable for we do not see Fire attracting Water and Water standing in some combination with Fire. If you have seen instances such as these, let us know. 47. உரை: 47. puutameevum puNarcciyee puri kaaya kaaraNamaakumeel Meaning: Lokayata ! You maintain that reproduction of creatures take place on account of the gravitational pulls the basic elects have for each other and because of which they combine in various ways producing the offsprings and so forth. Then how to explain the fact at least among the human beings this is not so and that sexual arousal that leads conjugational activities that brings about regeneration of the species take place only on account of LOVE as such. To explain the sexual union of a male and female the wise say all these things are real in the world only because BEING, as the Androgynous Reality has a Male Aspect and a Female Aspect and there comes to be LOVE as such only because the Male looks lovingly at the Female Comments: AruNandi is at great pains to point out that the element of LOVE that exists among human beings and which underlies sexual union between a male and female ( possibly also among lower creatures) cannot be explained in terms of gravitational pulls that exist among the brute physical elements. The World Process is basically physical but written into it is the biological and within the spiritual. The biological contains within itself the sexual differentiation. However we have now another reality -- the PSYCHOLOGICAL -- and within which emerges LOVE as such and along with it the SPIRITUAL. Love between man and woman , as already studied in great depth by Tolkaappiyar, is NOT any rule governed behavior and which woman will love which man remains immensely mystical -- always transcends any rules that we can concoct in terms of sociological principles. Finally it is concluded that LOVE between a man and woman is matter of aruL, something that happens only because it is willed so by BEING, or as Tolkaappiyar would say 'paalatu aaNai", i.e. happens only in accordance with the DECREE of BEING. There is LOVE in the world only because at the deepest metaphysical level there is LOVE between BEING-as-Male and BEING-as -Female, the Saivite Adam and Eve. Thus LOVE as such is not even psychical but rather spiritual. Ethics Karma and Joys and Sufferings in Life Now there is another line of argument related to joys and sufferings (suka tukkam) in life where the Saivites see Karma as the cause but the Lokayatas as something determined by the environmental associations. The caarbu, the ecological and social contexts of situation are sufficient to explain why there are joys and sufferings in life. If a person gets into a context, physical or mental, that produces pains, then there will be sufferings, and when into that which produces joys then happiness. 48 கந்தம் வெம்மை கலந்திடும் புனல் கன்மம் என்செய்தது என்றனை உரை: 48. kantam vemmai kalantidum punal kanmam en ceytatu enRanai Meaning: Lokayata maintains that in order to explain the experience of pains and pleasures in life it is NOT necessary to invoke Karma as the causal factor. Just water becoming fragrant when it mixes with sandal paste but hot when in contact with fire, so does the experiences of pains and pleasures. It all depends on the contextual factors into which the body of a living creature gets and the feelings of joy and miseries are purely responses to the contingencies of the physical situation. But it is pointed out that it is the karma that gets differentiated thus in conjunction with the Pure and Impure metaphysical grounds, the Pure producing karmas that bring about happiness and karmas of the Impure miseries. Furthermore such pains and pleasures being FEELINGS do not belong to the bodily responses but rather the experiences of the psychical entities. Comment: Here begins an interesting line of debate with regard to the nature of FEELINGS. Lokayatas, like the modern day Behaviorists and other logical positivists consider the pains and pleasures and hence all FEELINGS as such, are responses of the physical body to the different kinds of physical stimuli coming from the physical environment. A painful environment like the extremely hot desert landscape elicits automatically responses that are painful. Similarly the stimuli coming from a flower garden elicit responses that are exultant pleasant joyous and so forth. Ethical Guidance Towards Evolutionary Ascendance There is ethical regulation of existence, promotions of some actions and demotions of others. The ethical values INTRUDE into our life as if from the depths and take us by surprise. The Lokayatas and the materialists in general seek to identify the sources of ethical values in the positive and negative reinforcements of social organizations, economic systems and so forth. The social and religious leaders formulate value systems that benefit them and proclaim them as God given dharma sastras, which OUGHT to be obeyed, failing which there will be social and personal disasters and so forth. While these may be true and such value systems may be simply clever manipulations of society by the politically powerful, it is undeniable that there is such a thing as Ethical Competence among people (that may be exploited by the unscrupulous for their own ends) However it is also undeniable that there are many ethical values, which are NOT expressions of social manipulations but rather a matter of pure ethics. AruNandi addresses only the presence of such pure ethical values and the GUILT and PAINS that are related to them. While throwing out the manipulative bourgeois and the priests may not be unethical, the wonton killing of innocents is certainly unethical and which brings about sufferings not only in this life but also the next. These pure ethical values cannot also be dismissed purely as natural and hence requiring no searching into their depths and genesis. For while happiness may be natural, but not sadness, guilt, depressions, melancholy and so forth. These purely ethical values, quite universal in nature, have, according to AruNandi, the capacity for DIRECTING the course of development of an individual towards the HIGHER. The ethically sensitive are guided into evolving into higher kind of persons. The actions of a person are related to the mechanisms of evolution already at work in nature and those which are said to be good are the sorts of actions that would elucidate karmic scripts that would furnish a form of existence that is ethically and evolution-wise higher either in this life or the next. The actions that are evil elucidate karmic traces that would be not only pain producing here in this life itself but also in the next life. The transmitted karmic traces are the Prabta Karma and no one is free of it. 49 இன்பம் எய்தி இருந்து நீ வினை இல்லை இங்கு இயல்பென்றிடில் உரை: உலகாயதா! உயிர்கள் இன்பம் எய்தி வாழ்வதென்பது அவற்றிற்கு இயல்பான ஒன்று அதனால், அதற்கு மூலகாரணமாக கன்மம் என்ற ஒன்று இருக்கின்றது என்று கொள்ளத் தேவையில்லை என்கின்றாய். அப்படியெனில் இப்படிப்பட்ட நிலைக்கு எதிராகியும் புறம்பாகியுமுள்ள துன்ப நிலைகள் உயிர்கள் உறுவது எவ்வென்று விளக்குக. ஒவ்வொரு உயிரும் விரும்பாது மற்றும் வெறுக்கின்ற இந்த துன்ப நிலைகளை எவ்வாறு அவை எய்துகின்றன என்று சொல்லிடுவாய். அப்படி நான்கு பூத சேர்க்கையால்தான் அனைத்தும் என்பதின் வழி இஇதனை விளக்க உன்னால் முடியாது போய்விட, இப்படி இஇன்பமுமாய் துன்பமுமாய் வாழ்க்கை அமைவது முன் செய்த வினைகளின் பயனாய் அமையும் கன்மத்தால் என்று தெளிக. இனி மேலும் அனைத்திற்கு முதல்வனாகிய இறைவனே அறிந்து ஆன்மாக்கள் வீழ்ச்சி வினைகளை செய்கின்றபொழுது , ஆணவ இழுப்பிற்கு ஆளாக்கி தன்னழிவிற்கு காரணமாகிடும் அப்பொல்லா வினைகளைலிருந்து ஆன்மாக்களை காக்கும் பொருட்டே , தனக்கு இஇயல்பான அன்பினால் இஇவ்வாறு உறுத்துவன் என்று அறிக. இதுவும் புதிதன்று. தொடக்க காலந்தொட்டே ஆன்மாக்களை நல்வழிப் படுத்தும் பொருட்டு, வீழ்ச்சி வினைகள் ஆற்றும்போது நோயைத் தந்து தான் செய்கின்ற வினைகள் நல்லவல்ல என்று உணர்த்துகின்றதால் அமைவது என்று அறிக 49. inbam eyti iruntu nii vinai ilai ingku iyalbu enRidil Meaning: Lokayata! You maintain that it is natural for all living things to be happy and hence such states of being do not require a causal explanation and thus it is not necessary to bring karma and so forth to explain it. Then how do you explain the fact that there are sadness and miseries and such states of unhappiness in life that no living creature would enjoy but rather despises? Within the framework of physicalism where you take everything to be generated out of the four physical elements, how can you explain the presence of miseries in life and which is a fact of existence? If you cannot explain then you must learn to see that these undesirable and painful states of being are the results of certain kinds of actions that are disastrous for the continuos well being of the creatures. When actions that cause the FALL of the creatures by taking them closer to aaNavam, BEING instructs the creatures of such course of their life in order to redeem them from that course of actions and this is done out of LOVE for creatures. Also you should note that it is NOT something new -- BEING has been thus guiding the creatures right from the primordial times. Comments: This verse contains some very important notions that touch upon the notion of evolution that is also central to Saiva Siddhanta. But the evolutionary theory , if we can call it as such, is the NOT the adaptive-evolution of the Darwinian type that does not acknowledge the important role BEING plays in it but the Disclosive-Evolution, growth and development on account of the disclosures BEING makes in the life of creatures contingent upon the actions they effect. Disclosive-Evolution is BEING centered. Karma is brought in as the intermediary mechanism that underlies the evolutionary dynamics of creatures. The karma deposits are action outcomes that regulate and fashion the evolutionary growth of creatures, they transcending the limits of one of birth and assuming something higher and assuming the biological body and cognitive utensils consistent with it . These processes are regulated by the karmic deposits that constitutes the prapta karma, that information cluster that is carried over from one birth to another (and which may linked with genetic factors that are being studied now) Now Lokayatas deny such transmission mechanisms by denying that FEELINGS as such being NATURAL to creatures do not demand a causal explanation at all. However this may apply to states of Being where there is joy happiness and pleasures of various kinds. However it is fact of life, including that of the animals that there are MISERIES of all kinds and which are AVERSIVE to creatures. The question that AruNandi raises pertains to this: Why are there states of Being some of which are pleasant but certainly some others very unpleasant and painful; why there is happiness along with sadness? This duality of aesthetics shows that there is reality behind such events of life and therefore the presence of Karma as the causal factor. AruNandi also notes that this is the very mechanism of EVOLUTION and therefore something already there right from the beginning of the phenomenal circulation of the creatures. There is ETHICAL regulation of existence where when EVIL actions are effected , it is indicated by a feedback mechanism where pains are produced as consequences of it. Such a feedback is done by BEING Himself and that too out of LOVE for the creatures. For unless the creatures are thus guided, in their metaphysical blindness and hence ignorance, they are likely to go deeper and deeper into the EVIL ways and thus get destroyed through the dominance of aaNavam, the arch killer, that which appears as the Satanic forces in mythologies. Evolution is Evolution of Intentionality The Fundamental Ontology which is the presupposition of the disconstructions of AruNandi, emerges very clearly in this verse and which hinges on the notion of “anati”, a central technical term in Saiva Siddhanta that first emerged in Tirumular's Tirumantiram and which is also implicit in the whole of Tevaram hymns (and also the VaishNava Divvya Prabantam) The things that we encounter in the world, those that shape our the-tic consciousness, the consciousness of terms ‘this thing, that thing” and so forth presuppose referential frameworks of various kinds and a collectivity in communicative relationships. We cannot, within this referentiality, understand things in themselves, ‘ding in sic' as put by Kant. Our vision is always constrained by Temporality and Directional Spatiality and within which we cannot locate the things that CONFIGURE this implicit referentiality of human understanding, the CudduNarvu as put by Meykandar. The things of ordinary the-tic consciousness (and which enter language) are CONFIGURED, constituted as such by an assembly of elements and as regulated of Karmic Scripts that are operative. Those that are beyond the the-tic but allow themselves as constituents of this object-configuration processes are called anati. As such it also follows that what are anati are trans-historical, do NOT get into the processes that are tripraxistic like cats dogs and trees. What are anati remain unconfigured but enter into the configuration of all else. It is pointed out that not only BEING is anati in this sense, but also the Anmas, Karma, Maayai (the root stuff of both physical and mental things). And in this only BEING and anmas are sentient (cit, ceetanam) the others being non-sentient (acit, aceetanam) 50. உரை: இனி கன்மம் என்பது அநாதியேல், இவை தானே இயங்கும், தானே ஆன்மாக்களை பற்றி தக்க உடல் பெற்றுய்ய உதவும், இவற்றை பொருந்திய முறையில் நியதி பிழையாது கட்டமைப்பதற்கு கருத்தா என ஒருவன் தேவை இஇல்லை எனக் கூறும் உலகாயதா, கேட்க! ஆணவமலம், சுத்தமாயை அசுத்தமாயை எனப்பிரியும் மாயை, அணுத்துவப்பட்டு கிடக்கும் எண்ணற்ற பசுக்கள் இவ்வாறு அணுத்துவப்படாது முத்த சித்துருவாக இருக்கும் சிவன் ஆகியவை அனைத்தும் அநாதிதான், எப்படி இறைவனை தோற்றுவித்த ஓர் பொருள் அவனுக்கு வேறாக இல்லையோ அதேப் போன்றுதான் ஏனைய அநாதிப் பொருள்களும். ஆயினும் 'செயல்' என்று வரும் போது, அது ஒன்றினைக் கருதிச் செய்யப்படும் முகத்தானே அது உடல்களின் எழு வெற்றுத் துலக்கங்கள் அன்று. ஆன்மாக்கள் ஓர் நுதிப்பினை வைத்து அதனை அடைந்து மகிழும் பொருட்டு ஓர் செயலினை செய்கின்றன. அதுபொழுது அந்தச் செயலினால் ஆகக் கூடிய அசைவுகள் , அசேதனம் ஆதலின், அவற்றின் வழி எழுகின்ற பிரார்த்தக் கன்மச் சுவடுகள் தாமே ஓர் உடற்கண் கூடி ஓர் உருவை சனிப்பிக்காது. இந்த உடல்களும் அசுத்தமாயா விருத்தி என்பதின் , ஆகவே அறிவற்ற அசேதனம் என்பதின், தாமே தமக்குரிய மனை அல்லது உடலமைப்பு இதுவென்று அறிந்து கூட மாட்டாது. ஆக அநாதியே சித்துப்பொருளாகிய ஓர் கருத்தா, செய்யப்படுகின்ற வினைகளுக்கு ஏற்ப அமையும் கன்மச் சுவடுகள் எத்தகைய உடல்களோடு பொருந்துபவை என்று அறிந்து கூட்டுவிக்கவேண்டும். இஇவ்வாறு இஇறைவன் செயற்படுவதும் அநாதியே யாகும் 50. anaatiyeel amaivinRenin mala maayai kanmam aNuc civan Meaning: Lokayata! You say that in view of the fact that karma is uncreated or unconfigured and eternally there, there is no necessity to invoke the presence of BEING as the ONE who regulates the workings of Karma, as the karma on its own accord can function thus. Well listen! It is NOT karma alone that's uncreated or unconfigured but also the physical substance that becomes concrete and mental things, the innumerable finite anmas and BEING. It is the finite psychical entities that effect actions and NOT the physical bodies. The actions effected are different from pure mechanical responses as there is consciousness or understanding or INTENTIONALITY accompanying actions. The bodies being purely physical are simply evolutes of preexistent possibilities and in this they being insentient, are incapable of choosing the appropriate karmic-traces that would generate them. The karmic traces that come into being at the point some actions are committed, being purely traces inscribed in the mental stuff and hence insentient, cannot on their own CHOOSE the appropriate physical form consistent with its organization. Hence there must be BEING, as the Intelligent and Spiritual Thing that brings together the karmic traces and bodies that are appropriate to them. This way of functioning of BEING is also anati, i.e. has no point of origin or in essence unconfigured. Comments: Now begins a certain subtlety that establishes the Fundamental Ontology that distinguishes Saiva Siddhanta from other schools of not only India but also world thought. This articulation of Fundamental Ontology also emerges by way seeking an explanation for human behavior. Now AruNandi notes a serious problem in this by noting that actions effected by the creatures are INTENTIONAL and hence not purely mechanical reflexes and responses. And furthermore there is EVOLUTION of INTENTIONS not only within a person as he grows but also among creatures. The higher creatures show intentions that are culturally HIGHER compared to the lower, something also quite obvious among human beings. This means they are INFECTED with aaNavam, that which breeds DARKNESS and hence IGNORANCE. Thus this must also then be taken as anati, that which has no point of origin, a thing that is unconfigured but goes into the configuration of all. Granted this much, the objections raised by the Lokayatas remain still unanswered. Do we need BEING for the dynamics of the world processes along these evolutionary lines? AruNandi says yes and he reasons as follows. The Karmic traces are inscribed and as a result of intentional actions perhaps on a physical but subtle substratum. But this being insentient, cannot on its own choose a preexistent physical body and bring to birth as they're in the world. And similarly a preexistent physical body cannot choose on its own that particularly psychic entity that has the appropriate karmic formula as part of its bodiless structure. And thus if there is CONSISTENCY in the body assumed and the evolutionary level of INTENTIONALITY of a psychic entity, there must BEING who brings them together. |