[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Maya is NOT Avidya in Advaita Vedanta

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

This is not a reply to any mails/ interpretations/vyAkhyAna that is torturously trying to equate avidyA with mAya.  That is of no use we both (traditional jnAni-s and untraditional ajnAni-s) have already realized.  This is just my observation in continuation to my previous mail.  First and foremost thing that we have to keep in mind before approaching shAstra :

(a) it is jeeva who is having avidyA (jnAnAbhAva)
(b) it is jeeva who is having adhyAsa (vipareeta grahaNa)
(c) it is jeeva who is having parichinna drushti
(d) it is jeeva who is doing the mixing of satyAnruta
(e) it is jeeva’s mind (karaNa) which is having this natural tendency
(f) it is that jeeva with pUrva saMskAra getting the exposure to shAstra
(g) it is jeeva who is doing the brahma (svarUpa) jignAsa
(h) it is the jeeva that is striving to get jnana to eradicate this ajnAna.

So, shAstra too is there to teach this jnana (or eradicate the ajnAna) keeping the tiny jeeva  in focus. Brahman who is nitya shuddha buddha mukta, nirvishesha, niravayava, nirvikAri, nirguNa, nishprapancha no where / never ever comes under this scenario and never ever influenced by both vaidika and loukika vyavahAra.  Whatever stated in shruti is just to help jeeva to know/realize his svarUpa.  Hence taking it granted jeeva’s pramAtrutva, jnAtrutva,  shAstra starts to teach us brahma jnana.  There are two sentences in adhyAsa bhAshya confirm this : evamevaanAdiranantaH naisargikOdhyAsaH mithApratyayarUpaH kartrutvabhOktrutva pravartakaH sarva lOka pratyakshaH, tametamavidyAkhyaM AtmAnAtmanOritaretarAdhyAsaM puraskrutya sarvE pramANaprameya vyavahArAH loukikA vaidikAshcha pravruttAH.  In this big umbrella shAstra says somany things, but it is not to paste anything that is alien to brahman in general and avidyA/mithAbhimAna etc. in particular.  So with this backdrop we have to understand shruti statements in which brahma is directly involved. Indra pururUpa eeyate, bahusyAm prajA eeyeti, sOkAmayata etc. not there to paste the avidyA to brahman but it is there to convey the shruti siddhAnta that sarvaM khalvidaM brahma and brahman is the abhinna nimittOpadAna kAraNam for this bahu/jagat. And through his anirvachaneeya shakti he is appearing as many.   Does this type of srushti mean parabrahman due to his avidyA given birth to this multifarious jagat!!??  Na!!  it is not so. Brahman is not born in the form of the Jagat and become many like a person become a father by giving birth to many of  his children. In the example the children are different from the father. But in the shruti siddhAnta the name & forms of the Jagat are not like that. They existed in brahman even previously in an unmanifest state (avyAkruta kAraNa rUpa), became manifest (vyAkruta - kArya rUpa) without losing its sanctity. The socalled kArya  were never different from its kAraNa Brahman anywhere at any time. This type of manifestation of the one as many cannot be deemed as transaction in Brahman to paste the avidyA / mithyAbhimAna as the cause. Saying or attributing this type of avidyA / mithyAbhimAna out of context in brahman without knowing the shruti siddhAnta is ‘shuddha avivekatana” (absolute stupidity) declares Sri SSS.  These shruti pratipaadita siddhAnta is for YOU, the tiny parichinna jeeva  to realize nitya shuddha parabrahman, if you are showing the ‘uddhatatana’ (audacity) to paste your problems to brahman during the sAdhana patha itself ( during the brahma jignAsa) at the best at the end you would end up in realizing avidyAtmaka brahman only not parishuddha brahman and you don’t have to strive for that type of brahman because you are already that avidyAtmaka brahman  😊  he jokingly says.  And finally if Ishwara before becoming many (or before creation) have the avidyA beeja in him he is nothing but jeeva because jeeva too is having avidyA and before creation Ishwara/brahman too having the avidyA seed in him.  Hence there is no difference between Ishwara and jeeva and it has been said Ishwara does the srushti by making avyAkruta as vyAkruta and if avyAkruta itself is avidyAtmaka Ishwara must have seen a bigger picture of avidyA in the form of avyAkruta and he himself is avidyAtmaka since subsequently bhAshyakAra says avyAkruta is parabrahman.  See, these are all apasiddhAnta which is very dangerous to shuddha shankara prakriya.  Nobody wants to give any attention to these absurdities all they want to passionately hold the socalled traditional flag high and consoling themselves that they are true representatives of traditional Advaita 😊

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar