[Advaita-l] Why did Brahman create the world?

[Venkatraghavan S]

Yes, that is true. In the third chapter of the naiShkarmyasiddhi,
sureshvarAchArya says:

तच्चाज्ञानं स्वात्ममात्र निमित्तं न संभवतीति कस्यचित्कस्मिंश्चिद्विषये
भवतीत्यभ्युपगन्तव्यम् । इह च पदार्थद्वयं निर्द्धारितमात्मानात्मा च ।
तत्रानात्मनस्तावन्नाज्ञानेनाभिसंबन्धः । तस्य हि स्वरूपमेवाज्ञानं न हि
स्वतोऽज्ञानस्याज्ञानं घटते । संभवदप्यज्ञानस्वभावेऽज्ञानं कमतिशयं जनयेत् ।
न च तत्र ज्ञानप्राप्तिरस्ति येन तत्प्रतिषेधात्मकमज्ञानं स्यात् ।
अनात्मनश्चाज्ञानप्रसूतत्त्वात् । न हि पूर्वसिद्धं सत्ततोलब्धात्मलाभस्य
सेत्स्यत आश्रयस्याश्रयि संभवति । तदनपेक्षस्य च तस्य निस्स्वभावत्वात् ।

Ignorance cannot exist in itself / for itself - it always must be someone's
and about something. We have established (that there can be only) two
categories - the self and the non-self. Ignorance cannot belong to the
non-self, for ignorance is its (the non-self's) very nature, and ignorance
cannot experience ignorance by itself. Even if it was possible, what can
the rise of ignorance in ignorance bring about? Nor can knowledge arise
there (in the non-self), for it to remove an ignorance located there.
Further, non-self is born from ignorance. A thing whose existence is
dependent on a logically precedent thing cannot be the locus of that (the
very thing that it is dependent upon). It has no aspect independent of it.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Sat, 1 Feb 2020, 11:08 Praveen R. Bhat, <bhatpraveen at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Subbuji, Venkatji,
>
> On Sat, Feb 1, 2020 at 2:48 PM Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>> There is a Sloka from the samkshepa shAriraka that captures both ideas -
>> that the effect not only cannot be the locus of the cause and that it
>> cannot grasp / know the cause:
>>
>> आश्रयत्वविषयत्वभागिनी निर्विभागचितिरेव केवला ।
>> पूर्वसिद्धतमसो हि पश्चिमो *नाश्रयो भवति नापि गोचरः॥*
>>
>
> There is something similar in Naishkarmyasiddhi if memory serves me right.
>
> Kind rgds,
> --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] */
>