Superimposition (diverted from "Samkara's Theory please")

[Greg Goode]

Sorry, I'm inserting a new topic into the middle of this thread.  Something
I've wanted to ask before, but now is the perfect time.  About what is the
substratum of superimposition...

At 09:20 AM 10/13/97 -0400, MC1 at AOL.COM wrote:

>I believe Sankara states that unreality (mirage in a desert), as also
>appearance, must necessarily have a real substratum. In the case of
>appearance, the rope is the substratum for the apparent snake; in the case of
>unreality,  the "notion" of water is the substratum.

Swami Vireswarananda mentions in his Introduction to the
Shankara-commentary-edition of the Brahma-Sutras that Brahman-without-uphadis
is never the substratum of superimposition.  Instead, the substratum is
always some already-veiled-Brahman-with-uphadis notion.  In the case of the
world in general, the substratum is not pure Brahman or even Saguna Brahman.
Instead, the substratum is Brahman with some superimposition that has already
happened.  This is why maya is without beginning...

Any ideas?

--Greg