[Advaita-l] Who has Ajnana/Maya?

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Kalyanji,
​​

On Fri, Mar 17, 2017 at 8:30 PM, Kalyan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> An incorrect belief of misery is real misery. Therefore people are really
> affected by misery when they incorrectly believe they are miserable.

The reality of the "really affected" ​is at the same level of reality as
the world which is vyAvahArika. On the pAramarthikA level, the jIva which
is brahmAtman, is not really affected.

I have discussed this point here -
>
> https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/bvparishat/KlKjUx7J9mY


On the same thread, some references were given, one of them being Gita 13.2
wherein Bhashyakara deals with this as pUrvapakSha in detail and refutes it.
​

> As Des Cartes says, I think, therefore I am. It is thoughts and
> perceptions that make us realize that we are a conscious entity.


​​What Des Cartes says is irrelevant to Vedanta; "I think therefore I am"
is putting the cart before the horse, according to any Vedanta flavour you
pick. You have to exist before you can think.​ So I definitely am and I may
or may not think. That I know myself as an individual may need a karaNa and
therefore a thought, but knowing that I exist is svatassidhaH. Its more
like I think, therefore I think I am; not thinking would not take away
existence. sata abhAvaH na vidyate.
​

> There is no consciousness in the state of dreamless sleep.
>
​Then do you learn that you were unconscious from someone else after waking
up? It is svatassiddhaH. The experience of having no thought, seeing
nothing, happiness, can be re-collected on waking up ​only due to it being
*collected* in the first place during deep sleep. Its shUnyavAda to say
there is no consciousness in deep sleep, which stands refuted by
pratyabhij~nA.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
That owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */​