[Advaita-l] Padmapadacharya gives a long list of synonyms for Ignorance

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 2:41 PM Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> Thanks Chandramouli ji, for that very germane quote with avidyA, kAraNam,
> prakRti, bIjam etc., in samanadhikaraNyam.
>
> Also glad to know that Sri SSS also concedes as much...
>
> praNAms Sri Raghava prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
>
> Sri SSS is quite explicit in differentiating the mAyA and avidyA.  The
> IshAvAsya's foot note is not completely quoted  as Sri SSS very clearly
> says since mAya is avidyA kalpita it is called avidyA here and he also
> mentions in this very foot note that nowhere else this equation can be
> found in prasthAna traya bhAshya.  And he further gives the various bhAshya
> references wherein bhAshyakAra equates mAya with avyakta, prakruti, shakti
> etc.  So, you can be rest assured atleast according to Sri SSS avidyA is
> NOT mAya even in this quote as he clearly clarifies since mAyA is avidyA
> kalpita it is called avidyA here.  And as you know bhAshyakAra uses these
> two terms differently in the same sentences at various places of bhAshya.
> In Geeta bhAshya, avidyA is compared to 'visha' and mAya is compared to
> 'anna'.  Visha saMyukta anna can also be called sometimes for brevity as
> "visha" , it does not mean 'anna' is itself visha.
>

The actual vakyam there in the BGB 7.4 is:  अहङ्कारः इति
अविद्यासंयुक्तमव्यक्तम् । यथा विषसंयुक्तमन्नं विषमित्युच्यते,
एवमहङ्कारवासनावत् अव्यक्तं मूलकारणमहङ्कार इत्युच्यते, प्रवर्तकत्वात्
अहङ्कारस्य । अहङ्कार एव हि सर्वस्य प्रवृत्तिबीजं दृष्टं लोके । इतीयं यथोक्ता
 प्रकृतिः मे मम ऐश्वरी मायाशक्तिः अष्टधा भिन्ना भेदमागता ॥ ४ ॥

Here Shankara says at the end that the eight-fold differentiation as
ahankara, etc. is a product of Mayashakti. That way all the products of
Maya are non-different from Maya. Ahankara is stated by Shankara as
avidya-samyukta on the analogy of visha-samyukta anna is called visha.
avyakta is equated to mulakaranam. That mulakaranam is given another name
in this vakya as maayaa shakti.  On a search I found that this is the only
place Shankara has used the word 'mulakaranam' to refer to Mayashakti. The
rest of the 5 uses in the prasthana traya bhashya is to refer to Brahman.

regards
subbu

>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>
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