negation
In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
, nothing or absence. It is the negative of Bhava which means being, becoming, existing or appearance.
Overview
Uddayana divides ''
Padārtha Padārtha is a Sanskrit word for "categories" in Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools of Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nās ...
'' (Categories) into ''
Bhava
The Sanskrit word bhava (भव) means being, worldly existence, becoming, birth, be, production, origin,Monier Monier-Williams (1899), Sanskrit English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Archiveभव bhava but also habitual or emotional te ...
'' (
existence
Existence is the ability of an entity to interact with reality. In philosophy, it refers to the ontological property of being.
Etymology
The term ''existence'' comes from Old French ''existence'', from Medieval Latin ''existentia/exsistentia' ...
Guṇa
( sa, गुण) is a concept in Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, which can be translated as "quality, peculiarity, attribute, property".
'' (quality), ''
Karma
Karma (; sa, कर्म}, ; pi, kamma, italic=yes) in Sanskrit means an action, work, or deed, and its effect or consequences. In Indian religions, the term more specifically refers to a principle of cause and effect, often descriptively ...
'' ( action), ''Samanya'' (community or generality), ''Visesa'' (particularity or partimerity) and ''Samavaya'' (
inherence
Inherence refers to Empedocles' idea that the qualities of matter come from the relative proportions of each of the four elements entering into a thing. The idea was further developed by Plato and Aristotle.
Overview
That Plato accepted (or ...
) are the marks of existence. ''Abhava'' has not been categorically defined by the Vaisheshika School of
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy encompasses the philosophies, world views and teachings of Hinduism that emerged in Ancient India which include six systems ('' shad-darśana'') – Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta.Andrew Nicholson ( ...
but is of four kinds viz – 1) ''Pragabhava'' i.e. Prior non-existence, 2) ''Pradhvamsabhava'' i.e. Posterior non-existence, 3) ''Atyantabhava'' i.e. Absolute non-existence, and 4) '' Anyonyabhava'' i.e. Mutual non-existence.
# ''Pragabhava'' i.e. Prior non-existence, is the non-existence of an effect in its material cause before production; it has a beginning it has an end because it is destroyed by the production of the effect. Without prior non-existence there cannot be an effect.
# ''Pradhvamsabhava'' i.e.Posterior non-existence, is the non-existence of an effect by its destruction; as such it has a beginning but no end i.e. it cannot be destroyed.
# ''Atyantabhava'' i.e. Absolute non-existence, or absolute negation is non-existence in all times i.e. denial of an absolutely non-existent entity in all times and in all places. It is the state of absolute abstraction.
# '' Anyonyabhava'' i.e. Mutual non-existence, is denial of identity between two things, which have specific nature.
Negation
In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
other than mutual negation is negation of relation.
The process with which the sound value collapses into the point value of the gap existing between the first and the next syllable of the first letter of the
Rigveda
The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' ( ', from ' "praise" and ' "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts ('' śruti'') known as the Vedas. Only on ...
, ''Agnim'', is ''Pradhvamsabhava'', the silent point of all possibilities within the gap is ''Atyantabhava'', the structuring dynamics of what happens within the gap '' Anyonyabhava'', and the mechanics by which the sound emerges from the point value of the gap i.e. emergence of the following syllable, is ''Pragabhava''; this mechanism is inherent in both syllables.
The Vaisheshika, the
Nyaya
(Sanskrit: न्याय, ''nyā-yá''), literally meaning "justice", "rules", "method" or "judgment",Mimamsa and
Dvaita
Dvaita Vedanta (); (originally known as Tattvavada; IAST:Tattvavāda), is a sub-school in the Vedanta tradition of Hindu philosophy. The term Tattvavada literally means "arguments from a realist viewpoint". The Tattvavada (Dvaita) Vedanta ...
schools hold ''Abhava'' as a distinct category. Recognised as a reality by the Nyaya school, ''Abhava'' is often stated to be the reality of the greatest moment in the pluralistic universe and is connected with
Mukti
Mukti () is the concept of spiritual liberation ( Moksha or Nirvana) in Indian religions, including jivan mukti, para mukti.
Mukti may also refer to:
Film
* ''Mukti'' (1937 film), a Hindi- and Bengali-language Indian film
* ''Mukti'' (1960 ...
. It is a relative word, for there can be ''abhava'' only when previously there is ''bhava''; moreover it is an event occurring in time. The Nyaya and the Siddhantin maintain that the cognition of ''abhava'' is due to perception involving special kind of contact or sense contact.
''Abhava'' is that unmanifest level from where the concrete ''Bhava'' arises or emerges.
Vasubandhu
Vasubandhu (; Tibetan: དབྱིག་གཉེན་ ; fl. 4th to 5th century CE) was an influential Buddhist monk and scholar from ''Puruṣapura'' in ancient India, modern day Peshawar, Pakistan. He was a philosopher who wrote commentary ...
has referred to '' Sunyata'' having the characteristic of the own-being of ''abhava'', rather than a characteristic consisting of ''bhava'' which
Sthiramati
Sthiramati (Sanskrit; Chinese:安慧; Tibetan: ''blo gros brtan pa'') or Sāramati was a 6th-century Indian Buddhist scholar-monk. Sthiramati was a contemporary of Dharmapala based primarily in Valābhi university (present-day Gujarat), althoug ...
observes is in fact not redundant, which means ''abhava'' does not negate ''bhava''. ''Abhava'' refers to particular entities and not to
Being
In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality.
Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities e ...
; it is a theoretical or logical denial of the existence of some particular impossibility.
The acceptance of abhava as an independent padartha having ontological reality of its own is a peculiar feature of Indian philosophical tradition.
Dharmakirti
Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanford ...
considered ''abhava'' as an '' anumana''. He had brought in the idea of imaginary presence of that whose absence was apprehended in order to explain the specificity of the absence.