[Advaita-l] [advaitin] rope has some problem in rope snake analogy :-)

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Vikram Jagannathan prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Kindly pardon me for this belated reply.  December work pressure at office 😊 Here is my short reply :


I am taking 'problem' to mean something different from the as-is true nature of that entity. Could you please clarify what problem is said to exist in the seen rope by others?


Ø     According to some, rope is the product of mUlAvidyA, after realizing that it is rope not snake, the avidyA with regard to snake will ‘merge’ in ‘rope’ avidyA (mUlAvidyA) and complete annihilation (nishesha nirmUlana) happens ONLY after complete nAmAvashesha of nAma rUpa, hence antaHkaraNa, nAma rUpa etc. are the product of mulAvidyA recognizing the rope as rope is NOT jnana as rope is the product of mUlAvidyA or rOpe (nAma and rUpa) itself mUlAvidyA!!

There are definitely characteristics of the rope that bring about the remembrance of an earlier perceived snake. Adhyasa also is mutual, implying some of the characteristics of the rope are superimposed on the imagined snake as well. But none of this should be a 'problem' within the rope itself per-se.


Ø     As per some theory, There are two different types of jnana should occur before realizing that there is rope and not snake i.e. vrutti vyApti jnana (pramANa bhUta jnana) and phala vyApti jnana (phala bhUta jnana)  coz. brahmAshrita avidyA has two special powers (shakti) one is encompasses the brahman (sva-svarUpa) and some part of the same avidyA covers and projects the outer things also like a black solid screen covering the objects behind it.  In this sense rope (an external thing and yathArtha jnana of this rope) too is covered by some part of the avidyA.  Just removal of jnAnAdhyAsa is not enough there should be a removal of arthAdhyAsa as well.

Apart from the sat-khyati-vadins, for all others there is not an iota of the snake in the rope. What actually exists is just the true nature of the rope as-is.


Ø     Anirvachaneeya khyAti vAdins would argue that there was some anirvachaneeya snake in rope and that is the reason why we trembled, sweated and ran away!!  Hence avidyA is anirvachaneeya!!.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar