Please clarify an Advaita concept called Bimba-Pratibimba Vaada

[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Swamiji, please clarify an Advaita concept called ‘Bimba-Pratibimba Vāda’ (The argument of object and its reflection) about which I am questioned by scholars during my visit to Sanskrit University, Kalady.]

Swami replied:- The Parabrahman (unimaginable God) is beyond space. For a Bimba (object) to get reflected, it needs volume or the three spatial dimensions. Then, how can Parabrahman become bimba as per Advaita? Any Bimba belongs to the imaginable domain contained in space. If you say that space already existed in Parabrahman, then, it opposes the Vedic statement – ‘Ātmana ākāśaḥ sambhūtaḥ’ (Initially, space is born from God.). Any Bimba (object) and its Pratibimba (reflection) belong to the imaginable domain. But, Parabrahman is beyond imagination and does not belong to the imaginable domain or imaginable world. Hence, the reflection of Parabrahman is impossible.

The Advaitins also propose that God is the delimited (dharmī, the possessor of the property) and world is the delimiter (dharma, the property). If God is delimited by the world, then the authoritative Vedic statements like ‘Naīṣā tarkeṇa matirāpaneyā’, ‘Yasyāmatam tasya matam…,’ ‘Yo buddheḥ paratastu saḥ’ are not possible, which state that God is unimaginable. The unimaginable God is beyond space and hence, cannot be limited by any boundary. Both these arguments (about Bimba-Pratibimba Vaada and Avaccheda-Avacchinna Vaada) differ from the Vedic authority and also cannot stand before logic. The Brahmasūtra states that there is no example in the imaginable domain matching with the Parabrahman (Dṛṣṭāntābhāvāt) because all items in the imaginable world are imaginable and cannot possess even one similarity with the unimaginable God. Both these arguments can be successful in the case of created objects, which are under the scope of space having spatial dimensions whereas Parabrahman is beyond space. Space cannot exist in Parabrahman before its generation. If space existed in Parabrahman before its generation, the conclusion will be that space is not generated from Parabrahman. The Veda says that space is generated from Parabrahman. This means that space is absent in Parabrahman by which Parabrahman becomes beyond space without spatial dimensions. Any object not having spatial dimensions will lack volume (Parimaana, which is the property of space). The object having no volume cannot be imagined by anybody and hence, Parabrahman is unimaginable.

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