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 extraordinary significance, the later Vaişeshikas accorded the status of a category on par with its much reputed six categories. However, Abhāva is always projected as a concept that suits the subject of metaphysics and its real application to other branches of knowledge is never properly explored. This paper makes an attempt to apply the concept of Abhāva as a tool to explain various aspects of political philosophy, quantum physics, etc., and provides a rough sketch on how it can be applied to the emergence of any great iconic leader on the world’s political canvas. The present paper also invokes the concept of Prāgabhāva to explain the making of the current Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of the emerging statesmen of 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 his stupendous victory on May 16th credited his achievement to the political vacuum rather than to the anti establishment sentiment. He said “an anti-establishment sentiment arises when there is an establishment. In the last five years, one did not feel the existence of any establishment. There was a vacuum period. Political analysts will have to leave aside the old tools of analysis1.” He wanted the political pundits to coin a new nomenclature that best described this ontogenesis, a new beginning that resulted out of a vacuum. He was right. This was not an antithesis to a thesis, - the angst against the congress rule or misrule or whatever you call it - like the antimatter and the matter; it was not something whose ontology relied on the existence of its antagonist or adversary and which would vanish once the opponent is annihilated; rather it was a real beginning- a germination that has the potential to grow into a full tree. It is not the case of matter and antimatter, thesis and antithesis or establishment and antiestablishment - it is preconditioning of the ecosystem 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 as Mr. Modi wanted? Certainly there is.

2. ABHĀVA IN VAIŞESHIKA DARŞANA

In the Vaişeshika darşana, one of the six systems of Indian Philosophy, the concept of abhāva is both significant and unique. In the Vaişeshika school, an attempt had been made to categorize every conceivable object of the universe, that has existence either in the physical, mental or spiritual planes. KaÑāda called every such conceivable object as padārdha. Further he classified all such padārdhas into six categories: 1. Dravya 2. GuÑa 3. Karma 4. Sāmānya 5. Vişesha 6. Samavāya. The earlier Vaişeshika as propounded by KaÑāda did not seem to have accorded the status of an independent category to abhāva like the rest of the six categories of his system. However, the later Vaişeshikas, realizing its significance and its innate potential to explain the metaphysical aspects concerning production, distinct existence, destruction and impossibility of existence of an object in a particular form, preferred it to be part of the main categories of the system and from then the Vaişeshika system soon began to be reckoned as a system propounding seven categories.

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 Prime Minister Modi wanted a suitable nomenclature - prāgabhāva. KaÑāda defines it as non-existence of a thing before its production. But there is more to it than just a mere absence of a yet to be born entity. A vacuum or a space though, outwardly may seem as just an empty void is indeed a provision, a container for a future being to exist. It is the precondition for the existence. Existence demands that there be a provision, an empty space so that the object could fit in. A bigger object, even if it is larger only in one dimension, cannot fit in a space smaller than itself. It requires a three dimensional space that 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 the space? Not really. In this four dimensional world of Einstein, time and space are intimately 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 is awaiting arrival of someone to fill that void. A Mahatma Gandhi, a Nelson Mandela, a Hitler is created when there is a paucity, a dearth in the political arena. So is the case with Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, a Buddha or a Şankarāchārya.

Mahatma Gandhi wouldn’t have occurred, if the Indian political scenario wasn’t ready for him. The political arena of India at that time lacked a decisive leader. A brief review of history of Indian National Congress (INC) would reveal this fact. Though the INC was founded in 1885 by the Scotsman A.O. Hume as an offshoot of Theosophical Society movement, with the objective of obtaining a greater share in government for educated Indians in British Raj, it hardly met once a year and never was serious about Indian independence in its initial years. However, the partition of Bengal in 1905 created a deep furor, arousing the demand for India’s independence. But under the leadership of moderates, the INC was leading nowhere and there were voices of dissension rising within the party and so by 1907 the INC split into two groups- the hot faction led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the soft faction led by Gopala Krishna Gokhale. The soft faction of INC was left atrophied and relatively powerless with all the major vociferous leaders leaving the old INC with the new breakaway group and the Gokhale faction was left in lurch, needing a strong leader. And by 1914 the First World War erupted on the world scenario, creating a period of uncertainty and political instability. This was the time when Mahatma returned to India in 1915 with a background of vehemently opposing the British in South Africa. The demise of Bal Gangadhar Tilak also created a huge vacuum in the political space of around that time. Thanks to his strong and unswerving personality coupled with his novel idea of satyagraha, Gandhi soon emerged as just the right leader the soft core Indian polity was waiting for. And the rest is history. A new statesman who would dictate terms even to the inflexible British Raj was already rising on the horizons of 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 the absence of a suitable successor, that space is quickly occupied by multiple entities from among the contemporary leaders from whom again a decisive leader emerges. This vacuity caused due to the destruction of an object or an entity is termed pradhwamsābhāva in the philosophical parlance of Vaişeshika.

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

This process is well explained by the quantum mechanics. In his paper titled ‘Why There is Something rather Than Nothing’ Peter Lynds (2012) explains that according to quantum 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 before disappearing. In a way, they are able to do this by borrowing energy from the vacuum in the form of “vacuum energy,” which is the lowest possible energy value a system can have and hypothesized to exist everywhere in the universe, and as long as these particles pay the energy back very quickly with their disappearance, they do not violate conservation laws. Despite their name, such particles are very real if short lived; they can interact with each other, and with the Casimir effect, their existence has been experimentally confirmed.

Why are we witnessing such a great euphoria and rapture in the crowds when Mr.Modi is paying visits as in the case of Madison Square event or Allphones arena event in Australia? Or for that matter on his home turf? It is because India has not been able to give 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 years and anybody with a strong persona with a promise for swift and decisive actions was welcome to fill up the vacuity created. There was such a low ebb in every field particularly in the last ten years, that high tide was imminent and inevitable. And Narendra Modi just fitted the bill.

Modi is right, it is not just the resentment and umbrage against the previous government that was at the fulcrum of his success. That’s only a part of the story. It is the void with its inherent potential - that is created every time a significant personality or an event is about to 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 whole world 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 of India 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 claim the world prepares itself for global events. Terrence McKenna’s Timewave Zero and the Global Conscious Project are attempts to read just when the world is ready for a big event to occur. They say before a major event occurs there is a palpable shift, a sudden drop, in the global consciousness that is measurable. Whether these projects merit the stature of mainstream science is though debatable, proof for preparations before the actual event occurring come from an entirely different quarter. The studies in precognition show human mind prepares itself about three seconds before it comes across a grotesque incident which it fears or dislikes. When a group of volunteers wearing a EEG headgear were shown random images on a computer screen, some of which contained some graphic and disturbing images, it was found that the participants showed a significant variation in their EEG outputs about three seconds before they were actually shown such images. They were indeed readying themselves to witness something unexpected4!

The concept of prāgabhāva is applicable not just to political philosophy, but is equally well suited to the economics of scarcity, recession, devaluation of currencies, meltdown, etc. The emergence of American dollar as global currency of exchange post Second World War and Euro as a new currency post the fall of Berlin wall are some of the examples 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.ece 2. 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.