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

[rajaramvenk at gmail.com]

Agreed. Brahman is the locus and object of avidya in eka jiva vada. 

What about Maya? In mayinam tu mahevaram, mama maya duratyaya, vaishnavim maya, davim maya, atma maya etc., maya is considered to be a shakti of Ishwara. On the other hand, avidya is described as kuta, crooked etc. Does it give room for the theory that maya is different from avidya and has locus in Ishwara? Who first uses moolAvidya term and includes vidya and avidya under the ambit of moolAvidya?
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-----Original Message-----
From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 May 2013 11:49:38 
To: <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Do not bring Sankhya into Suddha Sankara Advaita

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 3:54 PM, <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> However, is it valid assertion that in advaita Ishwara is never a creation
> of jIvA? In Eka jIva vAdA, the jIvA ascribes jagat kAranatvam to an anAdi
> Ishwara using an anAdi shruti as pramana but they exist due avidya, which
> has jIvA as the locus and its drshti (sankalpa) as the basis.
>


Even when it is said that 'Ishwara and everything else is a creation of the
jIva', it is not in the manner of Brahman creating the world which is
sankalpapUrvaka sRShTi where the shAstra admits that Ishwara is in
possession of the knowledge of the karma of all jIvas and creates a world
in accordance with the karma of jivas.  In that construct Ishwara knows
that there are jivas and that they need the shruti for their upliftment,
etc.  In the case of the eka-jiva construct, the creation is akin to a
dream with no sankalpa.  The entities like Ishwara, shruti are all present
in that dream but their use has to be made with effort by this jIva.  Only
then can there be release.  It is in this sense alone that it is admitted
that Ishwara, shruti, etc. are the jIva-s' creation/imagination.

Shankara never says that shaastra prAmANyam is avidyA kalpita.  Even this
one jIva comes to know of the jagatkAraNatvam of Ishwara from the shruti
pramANa alone.  To think that Ishwara, jagat, shruti, etc. are due to the
jiva's avidyA is what the mistake the other party was making during the
recent meet and citing the adhyAsa bhAShya as the basis for their view.
MDS pointed out that such is not the case and what the adhyAsa bhAShya was
saying was that due to avidyA one thinks that he is the kartA-bhoktA
samsArin and thereby he becomes the candidate for either the
vidhi-pratiShedha shAstra or the mokSha shAstra.  In all the sutras
refuting the sAnkhya view, the sUtra/bhAShyakAra invoke the shruti prAmANya
for the IshwarakAraNatva and it is in this context does that sentence
contested comes.

Just for the sake of those who might require this information...

In all these discussions  we have to keep in mind the rule enshrined in the
following very important verse of the samkShepashArIraka:

आश्रयत्वविषयत्वभागिनी  निर्विभागचितिरेव केवला ।
पूर्वसिद्धतमसो हि पश्चिमो नाश्रयो भवति नापि गोचरः ॥ (संक्षेपशारीरकम्)

[The locus and object of ignorance is indeed the impartite
Brahman-Consciousness.  The entities that appear later, as products of the
fundamental ignorance, cannot be the locus and object of ignorance.
samkShepashArIraka']

As per the above, the jIvabhAva, whether in the nAnA-jIva construct or the
eka-jIva construct,  is only AFTER the avidyA makes its appearance in Pure
Consciousness, Brahman, the ONLY ONE entity.  The 'second' entity the jIva,
being a product of avidyA, cannot be the Ashraya, locus, of avidyA.  For,
even this one jIva has to get rid of avidyA to realize its Brahman nature.

regards
subrahmanian.v