[Advaita-l] Avidyaa is Subjective not Objective

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 10:11 AM, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Namaste
>
> > One can read the entire dialogue in the Alladi Mahadeva Sastry's
> > translation with great clarity on pages 332 onwards.  In the bhashyam we
> > see, in the highlighted portion, that Shankara is establishing that
> avidyA
> > is a viShaya, object, to the viShayI, the sAkShin, the knower.  It is in
> > this sense that I had said that avidyA is an object, a dharma of the
> > kShetra, the mind, and not an attribute of the subject, the viShayI, the
> > knower.
> >
> > From above Gita Bhashya we can say Avidyaa is known to person having that
> Avidyaa .


It is exactly this 'knowability' 'dRshyatvam' that makes avidyA a viShaya,
object, and therefore not Atma dharma but only anAtmadharma.


> Another person cannot say I have Avidyaa. I have to know and say
> I have Avidyaa. I cannot say another person has Avidyaa looking at his
> sayings and behavior. Every person has to look at himself and say he has
> Avidyaa or not.
>

This is not denied at all.  Vidyaranya as said that hunger, thirst, joy,
sorrow, knowledge, ignorance etc. are known to oneself pratyakSheNa and to
others only by inference.

>
> This is showing Avidyaa is a Misconception in the mind. It is Subjective.
>

You have come to the point.  We are therefore not disagreeing : ) ..avidyA
is 'in' the mind and therefore not in the Atman. That is what Shankara says
in that diaglogue.

>
> But Teekaakaras are telling us there is a Moola Avidya attached to Brahman.
>

I have already shown that in the Br.up. 1.4.10 bhashyam Shankara Himself
has said that avidyA is to be admitted in/for Brahman.  [this is not to be
confused with what I said above: avidyA is an attribute of the anAtmA and
not of the Atman.)


> This Moola Avidyaa is Maayaa Shakti. It has created the world and we are
> all seeing that Objective Avidyaa.


This is exactly the teaching of the 13th chapter of the Gita.  The entire
avidyA/mAyAkAryam is the kShetra which is the known, as 'idam', and the
kShetrajna is the knower, vEttA.  Only that which is a viShaya, known,
dRshya can be an object.  And that is why it can be annihilated by vidyA.



> But Adi Sankara said that Maayaa Shakti
> is imagined by Avidyaa in the mind. It is Maayaa Kalpitaa.
>

Maybe you wanted to say here 'It is avidyAkalpita'.

>
> regards