message to my friends

[Gummuluru Murthy]

On Thu, 13 Aug 1998, Charles Wikner wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Aug 1998, Gummuluru Murthy wrote:
>
> > Intellectual understandingwise, if avidyA is anAdi, must it not
> > also be anantam ?
>
> Answer #1: NO.  For how many millions of embidiments have you not
> known the contents of this post?  Now that ignorance is at an end.
>
> Answer #2: YES. Ignorance has neither beginning nor end.  It doesn't
> have a middle either!  (unless you are fooled by appearances :-)
>
> The first answer is slick sophistry (there is no specific cause for
> that particular ignorance); the second is advaita (GK 2:6, 4:31).
>
> Regards, Charles.
>


Thanks for your comment.

I like your answer # 2. Adau ante ca yAn nAsti, vartamAnepi tat tathA.
This applies not only to avidya, but to everything, all jeevas etc {If we
take all jeevas as part of avidyA, then that implies with what we see in
vyavahArika is all avidyA).

That is, avidyA is never there; there is only jnAnam.
But people may argue this is paramArtha view and not intellectual
understanding.

Answer # 1

I see the answer # 1 as the lower knowledge (as per MuNDAka upanishhad
classification of para and apara). When you say "...Now, that ignorance
is at an end...", I take it what was obtained there is the lower
knowledge.

Answer which we have got to see as part of us is answer # 2.

Then, is it necessary at all to say that avidyA is anAdi (even
intellectually) ? I am using the word anAdi here in the colloquial way
that is used in parts of south India meaning from time immemorial.

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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