[Advaita-l] What is the difference between Maya and avidhya ?T

[Bhaskar YR]

 Can anyone tell the difference between Maya and avidhya  of advaita?

praNAms 
Hare Krishna

It is last month's question.  But the same topic (i.e. whether avidyA and mAya synonyms (paryAya pada-s) or different) has been discussed earlier also in this list in detail.  Anyway, in short, avidyA is jeevAshrita and mAya is Ishvaraadheena.  However, some time there will be a question when jeeva bhAva itself is due to avidyA how can avidyA be jeevAshrita??  For this there is bifurcation in avidyA i.e. mulAvidyA which has the locus in brahman (brahmAshrita) and tulAvidyA which is in jeeva (jeevAshrita) and further there is justification for this mUlAvidyA as it has been accepted as beeja shakti of brahmaN and it is in bhAva rUpa which is the root cause of nAma/rUpa jagat and invariably exists in all the three avasthA-s and it is not jnAnAbhAva.  

Some knowers of tradition would argue that avidyA and mAya are paryAya pada-s and some others would not accept that avidyA and mAya are synonyms though both words have been used interchangeably at some places in bhAshya.  Just FYI.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar