[Advaita-l] Advaita-1)Body is the disease

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

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On Tue, 1/14/14, Swamisarvabhutananda <swami.sarvabhutananda at gmail.com> wrote:

 
 
 OM
 Brahman is sarvajna: and not ignorant.
 Unless one has the knowledge of Snake AND Rope  one
 cannot have mistaken identity.
 
 Sent from my iPad
 
 > On 14-Jan-2014, at 5:14 pm, Srirudra <srirudra at gmail.com>
 wrote:
 > 
 > Dear
 > In the rope snake analogy there is either snake or rope
 .But the afraid individual only sees it as a snake first and
 gets panicky and guards himself avoiding stepping on
 it.Later he comes to a correct understanding.But here
 Brahman is said to be WITH ignorance.It  is not that
 Jiva sees Brahman as if with Avidhya.How this is to be
 accepted?R.Krishnamoorthy.
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PraNAms to all.

I have not followed these mails since they were overwhelming number of them.

There seems to be some confusion in terms of who has avidya? This was also fundamental question posed by Bhagavan Ramanuja in his Shree Bhashya when he was criticizing the avidya aspect of Advaita under seven untenables.

Here are some considerations.

1. There is nothing other than Brahman, by definition.

2. Hence if some thing apparently exists the locus for it cannot but be Brahman.

3. If ignorance is root cause for karma which forms the basis for creation, then the locus for ignorance cannot but be Brahman since there is nothing else other than Brahman.

4. At the same time Brahman cannot be locus for anything, since Brahmna is infinite homogenous pure existence-consciousness. 

5. Hence Brahman cannot be locus either for ignorance or for opposite of it - Jnaanam.

6. Hence Brahman is neither sarvajna or ajnaani.

7. Statements 2 and 3 and 5 and 6 are not really contradictory, even if they appear to be so.

8. The apparent contradiction is resolved if we recognize that ontologically Brahman and avidya/jnaanan are not of the same order of reality.

9. Brahmna with maaya is Iswara who can be sarvajna and being Iswara he is maayaavi or wielder of maayaa. Hence it is under his control. At this stage it is better to call maayaa only than avidya (out of respect for Iswara).

10. In the creation process, there is anupravesha statement, after creating the various lokas and various bodies depending on the karma, Brahman AS THOUGH enters as jiiva. In essence the Brahman (all pervading pure consciousness) get reflected by the subtle body as chidaabhaasa. Subtle bodies are many and therefore reflections are many. 

10. After entering Brahman - AS THOUGH - forgets his real nature due to anaadi avidya and identifies with the upaadhis that are refection the consciousness as the original consciousness. It is like moon considering himself to be self-luminous body in the sky not knowing the luminosity is due to reflection of the original sunlight. 
11. The wrong notions are with the chidaabhaasa - not with Brahman nor with Iswara. 

Now who is ignorant? - very simple without going out all this rigmarole. The one who does not understand that  I am Brahman is the one who is ignorant of the fact that I am Brahman. Brahman means one without a second. 

Hence anyone feels he is an individual separate from the rest of the world, is the one who has ignorance. His ignorance includes not knowing who he is and what is this world and who is Iswara. All questions get resolved when He understands using tat tvam asi - statement that I am Brahman - aham brahmaasmi. He will also understand there is or was really no ignorance to begin with - na ca mastaani bhuutaani, pasyam me yogamaiswaram.

Just my 2c. 

Hari Om!
Sadananda