Advaita : Some Basic Explanations - 13 (The last)

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

>Wonderful! I do not know what you are trying to achieve.
>
>But all said and done Sankara does say koo.tastha is maayaa.
>
>Gita says "koo.tasthoekshara ucyatae"
>
>This means "koo.tastha is said to be akshara or indestructible."
>
>Then Sankara says
>
>apara.h purusha.h ak.sara.h tadvipareetoe bhagavata.h
>maayaa"sakti.h k.saraakhyasya puru.sasya utpattibiijam
>anaekasamsaarijamtukaamakarmaadisamskaaraasraya.h
>ak.sara.h puru.sa ucyatae.
>
>The other puru.sa, in opposition to the previous (k.sara puru.sa),
>is ak.sara (indestructible), is Lord's  maaya"sakti, and  is the
>seed of origination of k.sara puru.sa and also is the shelter
>for the samskaaraas (imprints) of the desires and actions of
>the many worldly beings. That is called ak.sara puru.sa.
>
>If koo.tastha is ak.sara and ak.sara is maayaa then koo.tastha
>is maayaa.

Dear Shri Sarma,

Here is my understanding:

What is being referred to here is akshara purusha. Now purusha,
in a dualistic darshana would mean Being. However, from a non-dual
viewpoint, we have to interpret purusha as a STATE OF BEING.

It is very important to note that prakriti/maya lacks consciousness
and can never be termed purusha be it a dualistic or non-dualistic
viewpoint. In light of this fact, identifying kutasatha with maya
shakti is very serious error. Unfortunately my ability at sanskrit
is very limited and hence am not in a position to understand what
shri Sankara says in his commentry. I will be really surprised to
learn that indeed shri Shankara has referred to prakriti/maya as
a purusha.

What Shri Dave said earlier makes much more sense. If kuta (heap)
is to be understood as maya, then kutastha is that state of
being which is situated in maya. In that case equating kutastha
with 1. sakshi, OR 2. sakshi + maya in seed form, seems appropriate.

Best regards
Shrinivas Gadkari