[Advaita-l] On the nature of muula avidya

[Anand Hudli]

Shri V. Subrahmanian wrote:

On Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 12:14 AM, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk
at gmail.com <http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l>>
wrote:

>>* In darkness, I experience duality - me and darkness. It is a frighful*>>* condition that I want to get out of.*

>That is the reason the Shruti declares 'dviteeyAd vai bhayam bhavati' : -)

On Tue, 10/25/11, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com
<http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l>> wrote:

>But what is there in Darkness to experience. Nothing. I don't see any
>object. Only I am there.  Why say there is Dvaita ?

Even in darkness, there is no experience of "nothing" but an
experience of "something". This "something" gives rise to the notion,
" I do not see anything". Hence, even this Darkness is "bhAvarUpa"
like the mUlAvidyA that our AchAryas have described.

chitsukha in his tattvapradipika shows that the ajnAna defined thus
has a basis in shruti:

tama AsIt.h, mAyAM tu prakR^itiM vidyAdityAdyAgamopi tatra pramANam.h | na
cha tamaH shabdena jnAnAbhAvaH kathyate | nAsadAsItyabhAvaM vyAvartya tama
AsIditi pratipAdanAt.h |

The shruti statements, "Darkness was" (Rig Veda nAsadIya sUkta), and "mAyA
is understood to be prakR^iti (nature)" (shvetAshvatara upaniShad), also
affirm that ajnAna (as bhAvarUpa). By the word "darkness", an absence of
knowledge is not stated because (the shruti) excludes (such an) absence by
declaring "Non-existence (asat) was not there" and "Darkness was."

It is apt that we are discussing Darkness and Light during this
festive season of lights.

Regards,

Anand