The Significance of Vaişeshika’s Prāgabhāva

Kanchi Vijay Srinath,Asst. Professor (Philosophy) & Librarian,Moolji Jaitha College, Jalgaon-425 002

Maharashtra, Indiavskanchi@gmail.com

Mob:9403673618

and

Dr. Sunil Vasantrao Salunke,Associate Professor,

Department of Philosophy, Dayanand College, Latur

ABSTRACT

The Vaişeshika philosophy presents an interesting concept called Abhāva. Owing to its extraordinarysignificance, the later Vaişeshikas accorded the status of a category on par with its much reputed sixcategories. However, Abhāva is always projected as a concept that suits the subject of metaphysics and itsreal application to other branches of knowledge is never properly explored. This paper makes an attemptto apply the concept of Abhāva as a tool to explain various aspects of political philosophy, quantumphysics, etc., and provides a rough sketch on how it can be applied to the emergence of any great iconicleader on the world’s political canvas. The present paper also invokes the concept of Prāgabhāva toexplain the making of the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of the emerging statesmenof the world.

KEY WORDS

Abhāva, prāgabhāva, pradhwamsābhāva, Vaişeshika, Narendra Modi.

1. INTRODUCTION

Narendra Modi while addressing a huge gathering in Ahmedabad on the occasion of hisstupendous victory on May 16th credited his achievement to the political vacuum ratherthan to the anti establishment sentiment. He said “an anti-establishment sentiment ariseswhen there is an establishment. In the last five years, one did not feel the existence of anyestablishment. There was a vacuum period. Political analysts will have to leave aside theold tools of analysis1.” He wanted the political pundits to coin a new nomenclature thatbest described this ontogenesis, a new beginning that resulted out of a vacuum. He wasright. This was not an antithesis to a thesis, - the angst against the congress rule ormisrule or whatever you call it - like the antimatter and the matter; it was not somethingwhose ontology relied on the existence of its antagonist or adversary and which wouldvanish once the opponent is annihilated; rather it was a real beginning- a germination thathas the potential to grow into a full tree. It is not the case of matter and antimatter, thesisand antithesis or establishment and antiestablishment - it is preconditioning of theecosystem that happens at a subtle level - the evolution of propitious conditions for the

new coming. But is there a nomenclature, a philosophical explanation to this effect asMr. Modi wanted? Certainly there is.

2. ABHĀVA IN VAIŞESHIKA DARŞANA

In the Vaişeshika darşana, one of the six systems of Indian Philosophy, the concept ofabhāva is both significant and unique. In the Vaişeshika school, an attempt had been madeto categorize every conceivable object of the universe, that has existence either in thephysical, mental or spiritual planes. KaÑāda called every such conceivable object aspadārdha. Further he classified all such padārdhas into six categories: 1. Dravya 2. GuÑa3. Karma 4. Sāmānya 5. Vişesha 6. Samavāya. The earlier Vaişeshika as propounded byKaÑāda did not seem to have accorded the status of an independent category to abhāvalike the rest of the six categories of his system. However, the later Vaişeshikas, realizingits significance and its innate potential to explain the metaphysical aspects concerningproduction, distinct existence, destruction and impossibility of existence of an object in aparticular form, preferred it to be part of the main categories of the system and from thenthe Vaişeshika system soon began to be reckoned as a system propounding sevencategories.

Even the ābhāva is further categorized into four main concepts - prāgabhāva,pradhwamsābhāva, anyonābhāva, atyantābhāva.

3. PRĀGABHĀVA AND THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

The Vaişeshika darşana of KaÑāda, has a definite term to the effect for which PrimeMinister Modi wanted a suitable nomenclature - prāgabhāva. KaÑāda defines it asnon-existence of a thing before its production. But there is more to it than just a mereabsence of a yet to be born entity. A vacuum or a space though, outwardly may seem asjust an empty void is indeed a provision, a container for a future being to exist. It is theprecondition for the existence. Existence demands that there be a provision, an emptyspace so that the object could fit in. A bigger object, even if it is larger only in onedimension, cannot fit in a space smaller than itself. It requires a three dimensional spacethat befits the yet to be born object. Further, absence of other things of equal dimensions(stature) in that space is also a stipulation. But is the necessity of void limited just to thespace? Not really. In this four dimensional world of Einstein, time and space areintimately intertwined and an object or a void requires four dimensions for its existence.That is to say there requires absence of such an object even in that particular time frame.Where does this all lead to?

In the political philosophy, a leader is born when there is a political vacuum that isawaiting arrival of someone to fill that void. A Mahatma Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela, aHitler is created when there is a paucity, a dearth in the political arena. So is the casewith Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, a Buddha or a Şankarāchārya.

Mahatma Gandhi wouldn’t have occurred, if the Indian political scenario wasn’t ready forhim. The political arena of India at that time lacked a decisive leader. A brief reviewof history of Indian National Congress (INC) would reveal this fact. Though the INCwas founded in 1885 by the Scotsman A.O. Hume as an offshoot of Theosophical Societymovement, with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for educatedIndians in British Raj, it hardly met once a year and never was serious about Indianindependence in its initial years. However, the partition of Bengal in 1905 created a deepfuror, arousing the demand for India’s independence. But under the leadership ofmoderates, the INC was leading nowhere and there were voices of dissension risingwithin the party and so by 1907 the INC split into two groups- the hot faction led by BalGangadhar Tilak and the soft faction led by Gopala Krishna Gokhale. The soft faction ofINC was left atrophied and relatively powerless with all the major vociferous leadersleaving the old INC with the new breakaway group and the Gokhale faction was left inlurch, needing a strong leader. And by 1914 the First World War erupted on the worldscenario, creating a period of uncertainty and political instability. This was the time whenMahatma returned to India in 1915 with a background of vehemently opposing the Britishin South Africa. The demise of Bal Gangadhar Tilak also created a huge vacuum in thepolitical space of around that time. Thanks to his strong and unswerving personalitycoupled with his novel idea of satyagraha, Gandhi soon emerged as just the right leaderthe soft core Indian polity was waiting for. And the rest is history. A new statesman whowould dictate terms even to the inflexible British Raj was already rising on the horizonsof Indian polity who would eventually be called the Mahatma.

Just as prāgabhāva, upon the demise of a great leader also a vacuum is created. In theabsence of a suitable successor, that space is quickly occupied by multiple entities fromamong the contemporary leaders from whom again a decisive leader emerges. Thisvacuity caused due to the destruction of an object or an entity is termedpradhwamsābhāva in the philosophical parlance of Vaişeshika.

Albert Einstein when asked by a journalist that what would have happened to the world ifhe were not born is reported to have said that if it were not for him, the theory ofrelativity would certainly have been discovered by someone else in the same period as thetime was just ripe and conducive for its discovery!

This process is well explained by the quantum mechanics. In his paper titled ‘WhyThere is Something rather Than Nothing’ Peter Lynds (2012) explains that according toquantum theory, a vacuum is not actually an “empty space,” but is filled with a sea of“virtual” particles that randomly fluctuate into existence for very short periods beforedisappearing. In a way, they are able to do this by borrowing energy from the vacuum inthe form of “vacuum energy,” which is the lowest possible energy value a system canhave and hypothesized to exist everywhere in the universe, and as long as these particlespay the energy back very quickly with their disappearance, they do not violateconservation laws. Despite their name, such particles are very real if short lived; they caninteract with each other, and with the Casimir effect, their existence has beenexperimentally confirmed.

Why are we witnessing such a great euphoria and rapture in the crowds when Mr.Modi ispaying visits as in the case of Madison Square event or Allphones arena event inAustralia? Or for that matter on his home turf? It is because India has not been able togive the world political space any leader worth serious reckoning for decades together.India has been a witness to a silent Prime Minister, an inactive government for ten yearsand anybody with a strong persona with a promise for swift and decisive actions waswelcome to fill up the vacuity created. There was such a low ebb in every fieldparticularly in the last ten years, that high tide was imminent and inevitable. AndNarendra Modi just fitted the bill.

Modi is right, it is not just the resentment and umbrage against the previous governmentthat was at the fulcrum of his success. That’s only a part of the story. It is the void with itsinherent potential - that is created every time a significant personality or an event is aboutto manifest on the world scenario - that is responsible for his stupendous glory.

Just as Paulo Coehlo (1988) puts it ‘when you really want something to happen, the wholeworld conspires to help you achieve it3.' It seems, in the present political environment,the world is conspiring to promote Mr. Modi not just as a strong nationalist leader ofIndia but as a statesman with a potential to influence the world politics.

4. ABHAVA AND OTHER APPLICATIONS

Is abhāva limited to just persons or is it related to events as well? Some researchers claimthe world prepares itself for global events. Terrence McKenna’s Timewave Zero and theGlobal Conscious Project are attempts to read just when the world is ready for a big eventto occur. They say before a major event occurs there is a palpable shift, a sudden drop, inthe global consciousness that is measurable. Whether these projects merit the stature ofmainstream science is though debatable, proof for preparations before the actual eventoccurring come from an entirely different quarter. The studies in precognition showhuman mind prepares itself about three seconds before it comes across a grotesqueincident which it fears or dislikes. When a group of volunteers wearing a EEG headgearwere shown random images on a computer screen, some of which contained somegraphic and disturbing images, it was found that the participants showed a significantvariation in their EEG outputs about three seconds before they were actually shown suchimages. They were indeed readying themselves to witness something unexpected4!

The concept of prāgabhāva is applicable not just to political philosophy, but is equallywell suited to the economics of scarcity, recession, devaluation of currencies, meltdown,etc. The emergence of American dollar as global currency of exchange post SecondWorld War and Euro as a new currency post the fall of Berlin wall are some of theexamples of that can be best explained through the Vaiseshika’s concept of prāgabhāva.

5. REFERENCES

1. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/election-victory-a-mandate-for-development-plank-says-modi/article6017657.ece2. Lynds, Peter 2012, Why there is something rather than nothing: The finite, infinite and eternal,http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.2720.pdf retrieved on 26th Dec 2014.3. Coehlo, Paulo.(1988) The Alchemist, HarperTorch, ISBN 0-06-250217-44. Something Unknown is doing we don’t know what, (2009), A Renee Scheltema film.