[Advaita-l] Sringeri AchAryas on the vivaraNa - the cause of adhyAsa (3)

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

I know Sri Ananda Hudli prabhuji does not want to engage in any sort of
discussion nor he wants to clarify any doubts...Hence, I request other
prabhuji-s of this list who have more acquaintance with traditional
teaching of vivaraNa school to clarify my doubts...

AH prabhuji:

PadmapAdAchArya says that the avidyA shakti, the power of avidyA, must
necessarily be accepted. This leads us to the concept of bhAva-rUpa-ajnAna,
the ajnAna that is not merely an absence of jnAna or knowledge, but
something that is positive in nature (bhAva-rUpa).

bhaskar :

but why??  is it so necessary that we have to give some name & form to
ajnAna to do brahma jignAsa??  If this positive aspect of avidyA is so
important why shankar in his preamble to sUtra bhAshya where he deals with
this exclusively did not mention a single word about it?? The
vyAkhyAnakAra-s' split of the compound word as mithya-ajnAna is totally out
of context if we understand the purpose of definition of adhyAsa/ajnAna by
shankara.

AH pabhuji:

The support for this bhAva-rupa-ajnAna comes from the shruti itself.

bhaskar :

Thanks a lot prabhuji for quoting nAsadIya sUkta..I vaguely remember that
my parama guruji has discussed this sUkta with sAyaNa bhAshya in one of his
works..I think most probably it is in mUlAvidyAnirAsa or sugama...Anyway, I
will come back to you on this issue.

AH prabhuji:

But before we hear what the shruti has to say, we need a definition for
this
bhAva-rUpa ajnAna.
[...]
While 1) having no beginning (anAdi), that which is of a 2) positive
nature,bhAvarUpa, (not merely absence of something else) and which is 3)
dispelled by knowledge (vijnAnanirasya) is called ajnAna. This is the
intended  definition.

bhaskar :

I have a problem here...If ajnAna is of a positive nature, a solid entity
(bhAvarUpa) then how can this be possible to remove it by knowledge??
jnAna can only give us the right knowledge of a thing & it cannot
change/destroy the *already existing thing* in a solid form...According to
shankara any positive thing cannot be removed by jnAna...jnAna the
knowledge can able to remove only the misunderstanding (anythAgrahaNa).
jnAna has no capacity to destroy any positive thing nor it can create a new
thing...jnAna can only remove our misunderstanding of the rope & it cannot
anyway annihilate the *existing entity called snake* in rope to give us the
true knowledge of rope...Hence shankara says in bruhadAraNyaka bhAshya that
*jnAnaM tu jnApakaM na kArakamiti*.

AH prabhuji :

ajnAna is different from both existence and nonexistence. However, it is
customarily called bhAvarUpa to indicate (emphasize) that it is different
from nonexistence (absence). (Yet) one cannot infer that it is
beginningless
*and* non-sublatable like the Atman.

bhaskar :

This is again the problem of unwarranted equation of mAya with
avidyA...shankara explicitly says avidyA is natural to human mind & is of
three types such as agrahaNa, anyathAgrahaNa & saMshaya...nowhere he says
avidyA is anirvachanIya...whereas while explaining avidyAkalpita mAya
shankara says it is anirvachanIya(tattvanyatvAbhyam)..

AH prabhuji:

Let us now hear what sAyaNAchArya has to say on the topic of
bhAva-rUpa-ajnAna in his commentary on the third R^ik of the nAsadIya
sUkta.

The bhAvarUpa-ajnAna, ignorance which is (not merely an absence but) of a
positive nature, called mAyA, due to its covering the reality of the
Self,is
said to be tamaH, Darkness. The (Self) is enveloped and hidden by that
Darkness which is the Cause.

bhaskar :

I have a very simple question here...If mUlAvidya covering the reality of
the self, this mUlAvidyA cannot be removed by any amount of knowledge
obtained by jIva...Because as per above the Darkness or mUlAvidyA has the
capacity to cover even the reality of the self!! brahman himself/itself
should have to remove this mUlAvidyA since it pertains to him!!
The least we can say about this theory of *covering capacity of mUlAvidya*
is this is absolutely shruti, yukti & more importantly lOkAnubhava viruddhA
& hence does not hold any water in shankara siddhAnta. Because no one says
that when I know the rope, the encompassed avidyA on the rope is removed!!!
It is quite natural & logical to say that I have got a right knowledge of
rope and my ignorance about it now gone!!

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar