Can you explain the concepts of anvaya and vyatireka practically and as explained in Bhagavatam 3.9.36?
Can you explain the concepts of Anvaya and Vitireka? And how they are applied in the Chatur Shloki Bhagavatam's last verse? Answer, Anvaya and Vitireka, these terms have, they are basically modes of analysis for determining reality. And they are applied in different ways, in different contexts. Let's look at broadly how they are applied in Vedanta.
And then we'll see how they apply to determine the conclusion of the Bhagavatam. So, if we consider the Bhagavad Gita's explanation of the relationship between Krishna and the material manifestation, in 7.7 he states, So, there is no existence apart from me. But we may say that there is so much that exists apart from him.
We see the sky, we see the oceans, we see the stars, we see people. So, Krishna says that all of these are like the beads that are strung on a thread. So, in a necklace.
Now, the beads and the thread, what is the relationship? If we consider Anvaya means, basically Anvaya and Vitireka are means of analysis for determining what is the independent reality and what is the dependent reality. So, we could say, if the thread is, if A is, then B is. If A is not, then B is not.
If this is the mode of reasoning, then we can say that A is the independent reality and B is the dependent reality. So, for example, if the thread is, then the beads are or the necklaces, which consists of the beads. You can say the beads themselves exist separately.
But when the beads exist in the part of a necklace, if the thread is, the necklace is, necklace with all the beads in that particular beautiful artistic position is there. But if the thread is not there, the necklace is no longer there. What we call as a necklace, all its individual components would simply fall apart with nothing in existence.
So, we can say that thread is the independent reality and the beads are the dependent, the necklace, which is comprising of the beads, is the dependent reality. If we turn it around, conversely, and if you say that if the necklace is, the thread is, okay, that's fine. But if the necklace is not, the thread is not.
No, that's not true. The necklace may not be there, but still the thread can be there. To give a simpler example, we could simply use, we could use golden ring.
If we say the ring is there, the gold is there. If the ring is not there, the gold is not there. That's not true.
The gold could be in a form which is not yet made into a ring. The gold could be melted and be there as a gold biscuit or in some other form. But if you're talking about a golden ring, then we would have that.
If gold is there, then the ring is there. If the gold is not there, the ring is not there. Therefore, the gold is the independent reality and the golden ring is the dependent reality.
So similarly, Krishna is the independent reality and the world with everything in existence is the independent reality, is the dependent reality. Another example we could use is that the physical world around us, we are no longer aware of it in our dreams. So the world is not there, but we are still there.
Or when we wake up, the dreams are not there, but we are still there. So when we are there, the waking state and the dreaming state is there. But when we are not there, the waking state and the dreaming state are not there.
So that means we are the foundation, we are the independent reality. That is the Anvaya. The Anvaya is when A is there, B is there.
So that is the conclusion by positive declaration. And Yathireka means it is the conclusion by the negative analysis. So Anvaya is used to establish the connection or the convergence of two things.
Yathireka is used to establish the discord or the divergence of two things. So when we establish the divergence of two things, then when we find out which exists independent of the other, that's how we determine that which is the dependent reality and which is the independent reality. So even if we are, when the sleeping state is there, our waking state is there, we are there.
But when the sleeping state is not there, we are not there. Not necessarily like that. We will be there in waking state also.
We might be in Samadhi also. So the state of consciousness is the result of the existence of consciousness. So the state of consciousness is the dependent reality.
Consciousness itself is the independent reality. So similarly, the Bhagavatam says, एतावदेवजिज्ञास्यां तत्वजिज्ञास्णात्मनः अन्वेवथिरेकाभ्यां यत्स्यात् सर्वत्रसर्वदाः एतावदेवजिज्ञास्यां In this way, this is the last verse of the Jatushloki Bhagavata, 2.9.36. एतावदेवजिज्ञास्यां In this way, when one encounters, तत्वजिज्ञास्णात्मनः, the one who is trying to do तत्वजिज्ञास्णात्मनः, the one who is trying to find the truth, so अन्वेवथिरेकाभ्यां, by direct assertion, by convergence and divergence, यत्स्यात् सर्वत्रसर्वदाः, this is the conclusion at all times, all places, in every ways that they come to. What is the conclusion? That this ultimate substance, the absolute truth, that I alone am the absolute truth.
The preceding verses have actually already done the अन्वेवथिरेकाभ्यां. In the preceding verses I said that, for example, अहमेवासमेवागरे नान्यद्यत्सत्सत्परम्, पशाद अहम्यद एतच्य योवशिष्यत्सवस्यहम्, so that I alone existed in the beginning and I alone will exist in the end, and in between also I alone exist. So if anything exists that seems separate from me, that is illusion.
And then the example is given that just as the material elements come, enter into the cosmos and they don't enter, that means similarly I exist within everything and still I have my separate existence. So when the Supreme Lord enters into all of existence, then all that acquires existence, all that actually existing. नतः दस्तिविनायत्स्यान् मया भूतं चराचर्म् यच्यापि सर्वभूतानां वीजम् तदः मर्जुना। Krishna says that a thing can exist without me.
So God, the absolute truth is not a portion of existence. The absolute truth is the precondition for all of existence. So by Anvaya we understand that if God exists, everything exists.
If God doesn't exist, everything doesn't exist or nothing exists. Therefore, God is the independent existence and everything else, the jiva, the jagat, material nature, the living entities, all of them are dependent existence. So the Bhagavatam says in Chatur Shloki that by the analysis of the concord or connectedness and the analysis of the discord and the disconnectedness, Anvaya and Mithirekar, we can establish that the absolute truth, which the Bhagavatam describes as Krishna, is the ultimate substantive reality, that he is the supreme independent reality and the world that exists is a dependent reality.
Thank you.