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

[Srinath Vedagarbha]

>
> > I guess that cannot be the answer. Because, the moment one say "The one
> who
> > does not understand..." makes that person himself ignorant, for he
> already
> > sees difference between himself (who thinks he knows the answer) and
> other
> > person who is asking that question. Since difference is due to avidya,
> the
> > person answering comes automatically under the spell of avidya. So, this
> is
> > really not an answer.
> >
>
> Not if the person asking the question is the same as the person providing
> the answer.
>
>
That could avoid duality of people, but not duality of thoughts (in that
single person), and that makes that person under the spell of avidya and
his answer is already colored by it. Therefore it is not an valid answer.
To avoid this difficulty Shankara denies pramAtRitva in the self (in
adhyAsabhAShya and BU bhashya 2.4.14)


Alternatively, the person asking (Sishya) sees the difference and is
> therefore under avidyA,
> agreed. But the person answering (guru/Sruti) knows that the difference is
> not real, thus
> avidyA is not real, and teaches the Sishya accordingly.


Your usage of hEtu is reversed. avidya is unreal because difference is
unreal? It should have been other way -- difference is unreal because it's
cause avidya is unreal.

Unreality of difference comes into equation ONLY after the cause (of
differences) avidya is established to be unreal. But again, in the
siddhAnta the unreality (of anything other than Brahman) is claimed to be
due to adhyAsa/avidya. That's the aatmaShraya issue here -- avidya cannot
be said to be unreal without invoking its effect of on itself.



>
> The choice of the Sishya is the difference between saMsAra and moksha. As
> long as you
> accord reality to avidyA, so long does avidyA continue to keep you in its
> spell. The guru who
> is brahmanishTha only accords so much value (not reality) to difference as
> required for the
> momentum of prArabdha karma to dissipate.
>

This is another topic I wanted to touch -- how can any prArabhha remains
even after brahmanishTa realize avidya is unreal?  When it was said this
jagat is avidya kalpita and mOksha is due to knowledge only (jnAnAdEva
mOkshaH), how can prArabhha (isn't it part of this jagat?) remains even
after avidya is known to be unreal? If it is argued it remains somehow, it
only means that cause for prArabhha is not avidya but something else.

/SV