In the Prasthana-traya what does nyaya mean – how does it relate with Vedanta-sutra?

Transcript

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thank you nyaya is one of the six systems of philosophy but then nyaya is also said to be a part of the prasthantray where it refers to vedanta sutra so what does nyaya mean when it refers to when it refers to vedanta sutra answer words can have different meanings in different contexts the words we use are like the handles and the concepts of the word’s address are like suitcases so sometimes a similar structure or similar colored handle may be there on different suitcases also so similarly the same word can refer to different concepts or objects in different contexts so nyaya at one level can refer simply to logic like it can say that means half hand logic that means we take only one part of a statement and analyze that and neglect the other part of the statement so here nyaya simply means logic it doesn’t necessarily refer to the system of philosophy which is known as nyaya now nyaya also can mean justice so anyaya is injustice that is more in the vernacular language such as hindi but we can see that words have different meanings in the traditional context when we use nyaya as one of the six systems of philosophy there it refers to a whole evolved body of knowledge which is primarily deriving its understanding from arguments based on logic and it derives itself or it drives itself towards setting up systems also for use of logic now when nyaya becomes the supreme or primary way of acquiring knowledge that means we rely only on logic without gaining understanding about other aspects of reality or using other sources of knowledge beyond logic then we often misunderstand the nature of reality so nyaya alone is not enough for us to move forwards in gaining conclusive understanding of the truth so nyaya as a system of philosophy does not lead us to the understanding of the ultimate reality but it is a system of philosophy which is also derived from the vedas but which focuses primarily on logical postulations of course the nyaya logic is different from western logic that we are more familiar with so we could say nyaya can refer to logic nyaya can refer to a system of philosophy that is based primarily on logic and nyaya can also refer to a book that focuses primarily on using logic for doing its analysis and arriving at conclusions so now in the prasthanatray that means three pillars of knowledge shuddhi, smriti and nyaya we say so shuddhi refers to the vedas smriti refers to the puranas and tihasas and nyaya refers to the vedanta sutra the vedanta sutra analyses various abstruse passages from the upanishads and tries to explain and explains their meaning using logical analysis so it does not the vedanta sutra does not derive its conclusions based on scripture alone so it takes scripture as a starting point and looks at various scriptural statements which are either difficult to understand or which seem to be contradictory to other statements in scriptures and then it uses logic along with of course references from other contexts in scriptures to arrive at a conclusion of what those passages particularly mean and ultimately what the broad body of upanishadic wisdom means so nyaya when it is used in the prasthanatray it refers to the body of knowledge or the book of knowledge that relies primarily on logic in arriving at its conclusions so shruti you could say refers to revelation smriti can refer to tradition and nyaya can refer to reasoning so in his vedanta sutra commentary go in the bhashya balde vidya bhushan he quotes from the shruti and smriti also when he is commenting on the nyaya on the nyaya text that is the vedanta sutra so basically nyaya can refer to just general logic in general it can refer to a system of philosophy that relies primarily on logic and it can also refer to a text that uses logic primarily to arrive at a harmonious understanding of various statements from the shruti’s upanishads specifically in the prasthanatray the third meaning is what is applicable for nyaya that means we understand from revelation from tradition and from reason in discerning the ultimate truth