[Advaita-l] [advaitin] The nature of mUlAvidyA as per mUlAvidyAvAdins

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Hari Om,

A shloka by Sureshwar puts to rest all confusions regarding nature of avidyA

अस्य द्वैतेन्द्रजालस्य यदुपादानकारणम्।
अज्ञानं तदुपाश्रित्य ब्रह्मकारणमुच्यते।।
(BrihadAraNyaka BhAshya VArtika by SureshwarAchArya)

In this important shloka which is quoted by several AchAryAs of advaita
tradition including NeelakaNtha, Madhusudana Saraswati etc,
SureshwarAchArya states the following:-

The material cause of this magical duality is ajnAna. Brahman is said to be
cause on account of the superimposition of that ajnAna (in Brahman).

People who posit ajnAna to be abhAva need to explain how abhAva can be
upAdAna kAraNam (of anything).

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.

On Wed, 30 Nov, 2022, 7:08 am Jaishankar Narayanan via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear Bhaskar ji,
>
> In Br Up Sambandha Bhasya bhasyakara says
>
> स एष बीजाङ्कुरादिवदविद्याकृतः संसारः आत्मनि
> क्रियाकारकफलाध्यारोपलक्षणोऽनादिरनन्तोऽनर्थ
> इत्येतस्माद्विरक्तस्याविद्यानिवृत्तये
> तद्विपरीतब्रह्मविद्याप्रतिपत्त्यर्थोपनिषदारभ्यते ॥
>
> Further he says
>
> कामादिदोषकर्मबीजभूताविद्यानिवृत्तये रज्ज्वामिव सर्पविज्ञानापनयाय
> ब्रह्मविद्या आरभ्यते ॥
>
> So avidyA is a bIja, cause. Sureshvara also talks about kArana-avidyA. This
> kArana avidyA has both AvaraNa and vikshepa shakti which is revealed by
> words like jnAna-abhAva, agrhaNa (AvaraNa) and samshaya, viparyaya
> (vikshepa).
>
> This kArana avidyA can never be atyanta-asat abhAva which is totally
> opposed to Bhashya, shruti and yukti.
>
> With love and prayers,
> Jaishankar
>
> On Tue, 29 Nov 2022, 17:25 Bhaskar YR, <bhaskar.yr at hitachienergy.com>
> wrote:
>
> > praNAms Sri Jaishankar prabhuji
> > Hare Krishna
> >
> >  (h) this avidyA does not mean it's an abhAva, nor agrahaNa nor
> >  saMshaya nor it is saMskAra (impressions of saMskAra
> >
> >  JN: This avidyA manifests itself as jnana-abhAvA, agrahana,
> >  samshaya etc. So it can be called with all these names
> >
> > >  As Sri SSS's clarifies most of these definitions of avidyA he has
> taken
> > from the work called  panchapAdika vivaraNa ( the sub commentary written
> by
> > prakAshAtmayati on paNchapAdika) published by Vijayanagaram Sanskrita
> > Granthavali 1892),  So as per this work ( I don't have this original
> work)
> > Sri Swamiji saying the avidyA advocated by vivaraNakAra is neither of
> these
> > three forms of avidyA. When it is the avidyA as explained by bhAshyakAra
> > like abhAva , agrahaNa and saMshaya and nothing else apart from this,
> why /
> > what is the need for the one more avidyA which has the Ashraya in brahman
> > and which itself subsequently manifests again as jnAnAbhAva, agrahaNa and
> > saMshaya.  If you are saying jnAnAbhAva is the subsequent development
> > (appearance) of mUlAvidyA what would be the primary nature (mUla rUpa) of
> > this avidyA??  What would be the difference between tUlA vidyA and
> > mUlAvidyA and how these two get completely eradicated when later is an
> > positive entity??  More of this later when time permits. Anyway the
> > flexible version of avidyA that you are providing above if at all found
> in
> > originals kindly provide it.
> >
> > Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> > bhaskar
> >
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