[Advaita-l] Locus of maayaa and avidyaa

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

Hare Krishna Sri Bhaskar. In BhG 7.13, mAyA is said to be the cause of
avidyA. The question that arises is whether avidyA causes mAyA or the other
way around. In vyavahara, mAyA is an entity. Can the same be said about
avidyA? In his commentary to BhG 5.22, Madhusudana Saraswati  says that
avidyA is an entity. He says that according to the Upanishads, avidyA is a
beginningless positive entity.I would be keen to know the upanishadic
reference to avidyA being a positive entity that lead Madhusudana to
believe so. Before that he analyses it from yogA angle to arrive at a
similar conclusion and says that, "This avidyA having five divisions -
tamas, moha, mahAmoha, tAmisra and andha tamisra issued out of the great
soul Vishu" (VP 1.5.5). Based on the smrti, he says that these kleshas, and
hence entities, exist in four states - prasupta, tanu, vichinna and udAra.


On Thursday, May 23, 2013, Bhaskar YR wrote:

> mAyA used in positive (daivim maya), neutral (trigunatmika maya) and
> negative (kutastha - kuta = crooked)connotations. avidyA is always
> negative. Is that right?
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Yes, the term 'mAya' has been used under different contexts by
> shankara...some times it is said maya's svarUpa is brahmAnanya and mAya is
> brahmAdheena, some times it is said mAyA is anirvachaneeya, mAyA  is avidyA
> parikalpita, avidyA kruta, avidyA pratyupasthApita, and somewhere in geeta
> bhAshya shankara insists that parA & aparA prakruti dvaya which is Ishwara
> mAya is 'nitya' and krishna tells it is 'mama mAyA'...nityAshvaratvAt
> Ishwarasya tatprakrutyOrapi yuktaM nityatvena bhavituM. prakruti
> dvayavatvameva hi Ishwarasya IshwaratvaM..Whereas when shankara talks about
> avidyA he always tells us that it has only three lakshaNa-s  i.e.
> jnAnAbhAva, adhyAsa and saMshaya.  He never equates avidyA with Ishwara and
> his prakruti dvaya nityatva to say avidyA = mAya.
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar