[Advaita-l] Is the concept of maya essential to explain advaita?

[Kalyan K]

Namaste Venkatesh-ji,

>If you are saying Maya is Ishwara's Sakti used for creation and
>activity it is correct. No problem. But where is Sruti saying the
>Ishwara Sakti is Mithya? There is no such thing Mithya anywhere.


There is a sukta in the Rig Veda that goes by the name of nAsadIya sUkta.
(RV 10.129)

In this sUkta, sruti expresses doubt as to whether even Ishwara knows how
all this creation came about. If you read this sUkta, you will feel that
its tone is as close as you can get to the description of mAya and avidya
in advaita. So yes, there is evidence in sruti to show that Ishwara's own
omniscience and hence his Shakti is doubtful.

Having said that, mithyatva is something that has vyavaharika validity but
is sublated on knowledge of brahman. So Ishwara, being a jnani, knows that
his own shakti is mithya.

Regards
Kalyan