[Advaita-l] Do not bring Sankhya into Suddha Sankara Advaita

[Venkatesh Murthy]

Namaste

Page 42 Essays on Vedanta -

'In the face of the above unmistakable definitions of both Avidya and Maya
the sub- commentaries on Sankara Bhashya have started a procession of the
blind led by the blind in emphatically affirming the identity of both
Avidya and Maya and defining Avidya not as subjective ignorance but as
something objective clinging to Atman and thus distorting his nature by
converting the all-pure Brahman into a transmigratory soul by enveloping
his essential nature'.

Page 45 -
'Ramanujacharya for instance confounds Sankara's teaching of Avidya and
Maya with the Post Sankara theory of Avidya and with the Maya doctrine of
the Buddhists. He has considerably exercised himself in undertaking an
elaborate refutation of the Avidya Theory and in calling Advaitins
opprobriously 'Pracchanna Mayavadins' (Crypto Buddhists).And Dr. Murti has
these remarks with regard to Sankara and Gaudapada -
'Gaudapada and Sankara merely bring out the implications of this standpoint
(of the older Vedantins) when they declare change, difference and plurality
as illusory; they formulate the complementary doctrine of Avidya to explain
the appearance of difference'. C.P.B. Page 122


Regards

-Venkatesh