Rajju Sarpa Bhranti - A Metaphysical Analysis of Visual Illusions in Light of Doctrine of Vivarta Vada
Abstract
According to the theory of causality (Sat Karya Vada), any cause is responsible for a particular action and the material effect should be identical with the material cause. This effect can be interpreted in two ways - complete transformation (Parinama Vada) and transformation in appearance with no change in reality (Vivarta Vada). When due to sensory deceptions, a real object in front of us appears to be an unreal one or we fail to perceive the actual object in its own nature - this phenomenon is termed as illusion in modern psychiatry. Illusions are misinterpretations of stimuli arising from an external object or we can say, illusion refers to a specific form of sensory distortion. According to modern psychologists, these distortions of perceptions are influenced by past knowledge, previous hypotheses and prejudices, as well as sensory signals. These sensory deceptions are many among them visual illusions are most dominant and nearly experienced by all individuals. Visual illusions can be divided into two categories - those which are physiologically based and those which are cognitively based. In Ayurveda, we can explain the various mechanisms of visual illusions at par with the modern psychophysics on the basis of the theory of Vivarta Vada, originally propounded by the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy. According to this theory of appearance, due to our ignorance (Avidya) we fail to differentiate between the reality and appearance (Maya) which leads to superimposition of appearance over reality (Adhyasa). Thus, these three components lead us to manifestation of unreal knowledge, known as illusion (Vivarta). This illusion can be eliminated with the help of proper knowledge of the real nature of object (Vidya) - in presence of which all the Avidya, Maya and Adhyasa banish simultaneously and the reality of an object reveals to us. In this article, the authors have tried to explain the various mechanisms of visual illusions as described by the modern psychophysics and validated these mechanisms by the theory of Vivarta Vada.
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References
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