mithyAjnAna - in Relation to BSB

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>But after not knowing X ,  knowing X as simething other than X,  say as Y,
>is misapprehension.  Now we have already have misapprehension or
>mithyAjnAna or false knowledge.  False knowledge is an error or adhyaasa
>since it involves satya asatya mithuniikaranam- knowledge of the existent
>object and mixing of non-existent object, Y, on top of the existent object,
>X.  Now statement that mithyaajnaana is the upadana for adhyaasa is like
>saying adhyaasa is upadaana for adhyaasa - That seems to be a circular
>definition unless I am missing something here.

1. In this particular instance, upaadaana does not mean a "material" thing
like the Samkhyan prakRti. It simply means, mithyaajnaana is the "stuff" of
which adhyaasa is made. Even in material cases, it is so. Thus, in the
example of the gold ring which can be melted into a lump and then reformed
into a ring, is the ring the upaadaana of the lump or is the lump the
upaadaana of the ring? It can work both ways. One might say, neither, and
say that it is the gold that is upaadaana, but then the gold always has to
exist in some particular form, does it not? So, in one sense, it would be
like saying gold is the upaadaana of gold, which is again circular. One
can't escape from this - it is as impossible as trying to do away with
identity statements of any sort. adhyaasa is born from adhyaasa and adhyaasa
gives rise to adhyaasa. Note that this is why avidyA is also said to be
beginningless (anAdi).

2. One must be careful to remember that according to BSB, this adhyaasa is
not one-way, but it is mutual (itaretara). It is not just that one knows
some X as Y (misapprehension of the object), but one also knows oneself as
something other than one's real self (misapprehension of the subject).
Because this is inherently self-referential, the discussion of adhyaasa and
mithyaajnaana should be seen more as a description (involving tautology)
than as a rigid definition.

Vidyasankar

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Fri Sep 29 01:30:11 2000
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Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 01:30:11 +0530
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From: elmec <elmec at GIASBG01.VSNL.NET.IN>
Subject: AdhyAtmic significance of NavarAtrI
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        boundary="------------36F64948FACB0E3D89422E60"

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Hari Om

yA dEvI sarva bhUtEshu vishnumAyEti shabhditA
namah tasyai namah tasyai namah tasyai namO nama.h

I recently read in the September issue of the Vedaanta Vaani the
adhyaatmic significance of the Navaratri festival. Let me share with you
the information ( in my own words )

Navaratri means ' nine nights '. The three main deities worshipped
during Navaraatri are Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. The nine
days/nights are devoted to worshipping these deities ( three days each )
in order to gain the spiritual knowledge.

Durga is the deity who killed the demon Mahishaasura. The word ' mahisha
' means buffalo which we know stands for all the ' taamasic gunaas ' of
laziness, sleep and such jada pravrittis ( animal lovers, kindly excuse
my allegation ). The first three days are devoted to the worship of Devi
Durga inorder to cleanse our antahkarana of all the taamasic qualities
and keep it ready for cultivation of saatvic qualities.

Next three days are for worshipping Godess Lakshmi who bestows the
wealth of the six saatvic qualities of shamA ( control over the mind ),
damA ( control over the sense organs ), uparathI ( withdrawing of senses
from external sense objects and turn it inwards towards the aatman ),
titiikshA ( forbearence ), samaadhaana
( keeping the mind calm and joyous by the thought of Brahman ) and
shradhdhA
( faith in the scriptures and Guru vaakyaas ). This is the wealth that
we should all beg Godess Lakshmi o bestow upon us always.

When this wealth is aquired our mind is well cultivated to receive
jnaana. Then the saadhana gains strength and we should pray Godesss
Saraswathi to bestow upon us her blessings so that the Knowledge of
Brahman is realised.

Thus when a saadhaka prays the Godesses on these nine days, they are
highly pleased and lo ! victory is ours on the tenth day - the Vijaya
dashami day ! The victory is celebrated by offering the leaves of the
Shami tree ( a sacred tree for Hindus which bore the weapons hidden by
the Pandavaas during their exile in Mahabharata story ) to an elderly
person who is a vayO vridhdhA and also a jnaana vridhdhA and the
following mantra is chanted while offering the leaves :

shamI  shamIyatE  pApam  shami  shatru  nivAranam
arjunasya  dhanurdhArI   rAmasya  priya  darshanam.

May the devIs be pleased by our sincere effort and may we become
successful in our search for the Truth.

Hari Om
Regards,
Latha Vidyaranya

--------------36F64948FACB0E3D89422E60
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
<font size=-1>Hari Om</font>
<p><font size=-1>yA dEvI sarva bhUtEshu vishnumAyEti shabhditA</font>
<br><font size=-1>namah tasyai namah tasyai namah tasyai namO nama.h</font>
<p><font size=-1>I recently read in the September issue of the Vedaanta
Vaani the adhyaatmic significance of the Navaratri festival. Let me share
with you the information ( in my own words )</font>
<p><font size=-1>Navaratri means ' nine nights '. The three main deities
worshipped during Navaraatri are Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. The nine
days/nights are devoted to worshipping these deities ( three days each
) in order to gain the spiritual knowledge.</font>
<p><font size=-1>Durga is the deity who killed the demon Mahishaasura.
The word ' mahisha ' means buffalo which we know stands for all the ' taamasic
gunaas ' of laziness, sleep and such jada pravrittis ( animal lovers, kindly
excuse my allegation ). The first three days are devoted to the worship
of Devi Durga inorder to cleanse our antahkarana of all the taamasic qualities
and keep it ready for cultivation of saatvic qualities.</font>
<p><font size=-1>Next three days are for worshipping Godess Lakshmi who
bestows the wealth of the six saatvic qualities of shamA ( control over
the mind ), damA ( control over the sense organs ), uparathI ( withdrawing
of senses from external sense objects and turn it inwards towards the aatman
), titiikshA ( forbearence ), samaadhaana</font>
<br><font size=-1>( keeping the mind calm and joyous by the thought of
Brahman ) and shradhdhA</font>
<br><font size=-1>( faith in the scriptures and Guru vaakyaas ). This is
the wealth that we should all beg Godess Lakshmi o bestow upon us always.</font>
<p><font size=-1>When this wealth is aquired our mind is well cultivated
to receive jnaana. Then the saadhana gains strength and we should pray
Godesss Saraswathi to bestow upon us her blessings so that the Knowledge
of Brahman is realised.</font>
<p><font size=-1>Thus when a saadhaka prays the Godesses on these nine
days, they are highly pleased and lo ! victory is ours on the tenth day
- the Vijaya dashami day ! The victory is celebrated by offering the leaves
of the Shami tree ( a sacred tree for Hindus which bore the weapons hidden
by the Pandavaas during their exile in Mahabharata story ) to an elderly
person who is a vayO vridhdhA and also a jnaana vridhdhA and the following
mantra is chanted while offering the leaves :</font>
<p><font size=-1>shamI  shamIyatE  pApam  shami  shatru 
nivAranam</font>
<br><font size=-1>arjunasya  dhanurdhArI   rAmasya 
priya  darshanam.</font>
<p><font size=-1>May the devIs be pleased by our sincere effort and may
we become successful in our search for the Truth.</font>
<p><font size=-1>Hari Om</font>
<br><font size=-1>Regards,</font>
<br><font size=-1>Latha Vidyaranya</font></html>

--------------36F64948FACB0E3D89422E60--

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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