[Advaita-l] avidya vs maayaa - What is the difference?
kuntimaddi sadananda
kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 29 07:29:37 CST 2016
Chadramouliji - PraNAms - Thanks for your comments.
Yes, I am aware of all that you mentioned. Hence my note, to see if this can be made simple by separating vishepa aspect from avidya.
As I see vastutva is required since there is vikshepatvam.
I feel it is not necessary make avidya with both aavarana and vishepa - since vishepa requires only partial ignorance and not full ignorance as in deep sleep. Hence deep sleep state provides a clear example where ignorance can exist with just aavarana without vishepa.
Avarana aspect alone exist in deep sleep state and realization involves only removing this aspect - leaving vikshepa part. Hence it is obvious that knowledge removes ignorance and not vishepa aspect. It is therefore logical to separate the Avarana part and associate it with avidya or ignornace and vishepa part with maaya.
adhyaasa is defined as satya - anRuta mithuneekaraNam - where some truth is mixed for vishepa in the form of anRita. for mixing.
Many criticisms of avidya of advaita comes because of this vishepa aspect.
Here I have separated the vishepa from avidya and grouped with maaya - contributing to jeeva sRiShTi and Iswara sRishTi. Since avidya is only at vyashti level, we spare Iswara having avidya without making another postulate that Iswara is free from it. He is only maayaavi.
In essence both aavarana and vishepa are involved - saying avidya is same as maaya to accomplish this, I am seperating it since we have invoke maaya as - aghaTita ghaTanaa paTeeyasi. which pure ignorance will not do without giving some special power with the proposition that it is vastu.
My proposition is only - we can avoid it since it is not needed.
I realize that traditionalist do not appreciate what I wrote, but my goal is to make things simple without getting into hair-splitting arguments.
Hope I am clear.
Hari Om!Sadananda
From: H S Chandramouli via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
To: kuntimaddi sadananda <kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2016 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] avidya vs maayaa - What is the difference?
Pranams Sri Sadananda Ji,
Reg << Here, Iwould like to distinguish between avidya and maaya -
although they have beenused interchangeably by many advaitins >>,
It is Sri Bhagavatpada who has stated avidya and maaya as synonymous. Yet
it is true many advaitins still consider them to be different.
Reg << Ignorance has the power ofprojection does not really make sense
since ignorance is inert since it is removed.>>,
This is just taking the literal meaning (in English ) of avidya as
“ignorance”. As per the bhashya of Sri Bhagavatpada, avidya is a technical
term having a much wider significance than just what is indicated by the
term “ignorance” in English language. It is a vastu (which “ignorance” of
English language is not) synonymous with the terms
maaya/avyakruta/avyakta/prakriti/kaarana
etc. All are inert including maaya. The differences you have tried to
pointout considering avidya and maaya as different are considered in the
bhashya as different aspects of the same vastu mentioned above. Not as
different vastus. Is there anything in what you have elaborated upon which
cannot be explained by considering avidya and maaya as the same vastu
endowed with different aspects as broughtout in the bhashya and can be
explained only by considering them as different entities ( I have avoided
using the word vastus in respect of your concept as you do not appear to
consider avidya as a vastu ).
Regards
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