[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Re: Paul Hacker on avidyA

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Dec 7, 2022 at 10:16 PM jai1971 <jai1971 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> Hacker may be a scholar but he seems to be wrong in his assertions. Some
> of these scholars only base their thesis by reading Br Su Bhashya alone. He
> says Shankara does not use anAdi for avidyA but let me give a few examples -
>
> अनाद्यविद्याप्रसुप्ताः उत्तिष्ठत हे जन्तवः .. जाग्रत अज्ञाननिद्राया
> घोररूपायाः सर्वानर्थबीजभूतायाः क्षयं कुरुत । Kata Up 1.3.14 Bh
> You beings, who are sleeping in ignorance that has no beginning, arise
> ...awake— put an end to the sleep of ignorance which is terrible by nature
> and is the seed of all undesirables.
>
> योऽयं संसारी जीवः, सः उभयलक्षणेन तत्त्वाप्रतिबोधरूपेण बीजात्मना,
> अन्यथाग्रहणलक्षणेन चानादिकालप्रवृत्तेन *मायाल*क्षणेन स्वापेन  mAndUkya
> kArikA 1.16 Bh
> This samsArI jIva who is characterised by both, non-cognition of the
> reality which is of the nature of a seed and by the cognition of reality
> differently and by the beginingless activity of sleep characterised as mAyA
> (avidyA)
>

The very same examples for the erroneous thinking mentioned by Shankara in
the above Karika bhashya -

*चानादिकालप्रवृत्तेन मायालक्षणेन* स्वापेन, ममायं पिता पुत्रोऽयं नप्ता
क्षेत्रं गृहं पशवः, अहमेषां स्वामी सुखी दुःखी

 is stated by him in the Mundaka bhashya below: In the Karika bhashya he
called it anaadi maayaa, in the below bhashya he calls it avidya:
मुण्डकोपनिषद्भाष्यम्तृतीयं मुण्डकम्प्रथमः खण्डःमन्त्र २ - भाष्यम्
………शरीरे पुरुषः भोक्ता जीवो*ऽविद्या*कामकर्मफलरागादिगुरुभाराक्रान्तोऽलाबुरिव
सामुद्रे जले निमग्नः निश्चयेन देहात्मभावमापन्नोऽयमेवाहममुष्य पुत्रोऽस्य
नप्ता कृशः स्थूलो गुणवान्निर्गुणः सुखी दुःखीत्येवंप्रत्ययो
नास्त्यन्योऽस्मादिति जायते म्रियते संयुज्यते………

regards
subbu

>
> As I have already mentioned in my note Shankara does not accept any abhAva
> (prAg, pradhvamsa etc.) at all. So avidyA cannot be an abhAva and so it has
> to be asat like this world appearance as it is the bIja / kAraNa of the
> dvaita samsAra. Shankara also states in more than one places avidyA is
> vidyA-virodhi. Further Shankara explicitly states in Br Su Bh 3.2.9 and
> Mand Karika 1.2 Bh that this avidyA bIja has to be there in sleep and
> pralaya for jIvas to reemerge and without the bIja being present, the
> Knowledge will become useless as it will not have anything to burn and if
> bIja is not accepted then mukta purushas may be reborn.
>
> There cannot be a more emphatic statement of the nature of avidyA than the
> above.
>
> with love and prayers,
> Jaishankar
>
>
>