[Advaita-l] avidyA and mind in samAdhi

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 11:33 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Namaste V Subramanian ji.
>
> 1. Is there a difference between kAraNa sharIra and mUlAvidyA?
>

Namaste.

They are the same.

>
> 2. If many sessions of nirvikalpaka samAdhi are needed for destruction of
> mUlAvidyA, let us talk about the initial few sessions. If
> tattva-agrahaNa-rUpA avidyA is not there, then how does it come back after
> samAdhi? It is the basic seed. It cannot merge into something and come
> back, like mind merges in avidyA in sushupti and comes back during waking
> and dream.
>

Tattva agrahana rupa avidya is not there since the akhandAkAra vritti is
accepted. This is AtmA/BrahmakAra vritti.In its presence 'I do not know the
Self' kind of ignorance can't coexist. That is the purport of the
Panchadashi verse and the commentary.

>
> 3. LeshAvidyA remains post jnAna is completely accepted. I was trying to
> understand about other AkArAs of mUlAvidyA. If the causal seed is not there
> in samAdhi, how will it come back!
>

The causal seed is not completely destroyed in the case of the need for
more akhandAkAra vritti sessions. Such a situation is admitted by Shankara
in the BSB 4.1.2:

यस्य तु न एषोऽनुभवो द्रागिव जायते, तं प्रति अनुभवार्थ एव आवृत्त्यभ्युपगमः ।
तत्रापि न तत्त्वमसिवाक्यार्थात् प्रच्याव्य आवृत्तौ प्रवर्तयेत् ।  For such
of those aspirants such an experience has not occurred instantaneously, the
need for reiteration is required for generating that experience...

regards
subbu





>
> Regards.
>
> On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:05 AM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Sudhanshu ji,
>>
>> On this //Actually, it is saying, there is no "appearance" of sushupti
>> (avidyA) in samAdhi and NOT "there is no sushupti (avidyA) in samAdhi".//
>>
>> We can see that the commentary, following the verses, is delineating on
>> the vyaavrtti - anuvritti logic. It says: तेषु परस्परं
>> व्यावर्त्यमानेष्वपि... this effectively is the 'absence' of the two of the
>> three bodies in a given state. Therefore in Samadhi the kAraNa shrira,
>> sleep, is not there.  But the Atman is there in all states.  As pointed out
>> earlier, the tattva agrahana rUpa avidyA is not there in akhandakaravritti.
>> That one will have to have many more such sessions in order to become a
>> sthita prajna is not denied. That is another matter. By definition the
>> samadhi as spoken of by Swami Vidyaranya in the cited verse is a situation
>> where that basic avidya is not there.  That the lesha avidya that is
>> required to bring him out of samadhi and continue in vyavahara, till death,
>> is admitted and you have acknowledged that as well.
>>
>> regards
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 15, 2023 at 3:02 PM Sudhanshu Shekhar <
>> sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Namaste V Subramanian ji,
>>>
>>> Thanks for the reply.
>>>
>>> I went through the Panchadashi shloka and the tIkA thereupon.
>>>
>>> //Here he says 'In Samadhi there is no Sushupti but Atman is present.
>>> This is anvaya. The vyatireka is: when Atman is shining, sushupti is not
>>> present. //
>>>
>>> Actually, it is saying, there is no "appearance" of sushupti (avidyA) in
>>> samAdhi and NOT "there is no sushupti (avidyA) in samAdhi".
>>>
>>> The non-appearance of avidyA in samAdhi is well accepted. However, that
>>> is explained not due to absence of avidyA, but due to absence of
>>> avidyAkArA-avidyA-vritti. In avidyA-pratIti-vichAra of advaita-siddhi, MS
>>> says:-
>>>
>>> न चैवं कदाचिदविद्याया अप्रतीत्यापत्तिः; इष्टापत्तेः, समाधौ तथाभ्युपगमात्
>>> ।
>>>
>>> Is there any clear articulation anywhere that avidyA is not present
>>> during samAdhi. Because if avidyA is not present during samAdhi, then one
>>> will not be able to wake up from samAdhi.
>>>
>>>
>>> //Since it is admitted that the Tattva agrahana rupa avidya is present
>>> in all three states, in Samadhi when Akhandakara vritti is there, that
>>> avidya is not present. The Ramakrishna Teeka for the above verse where he
>>> says 'ajnana is not there in samadhi', can be seen here:
>>>
>>> https://archive.org/details/panchadashi-ramkrishna/page/n57/mode/2up//
>>>
>>> Does attaining nirvikalpaka-samAdhi once leads to destruction of avidyA?
>>>
>>> //Of course, the mind, which is the instrument for even attaining
>>> Samadhi, has to be admitted to be present. Also, the nascent form of
>>> avidya/mind are admitted to be present even during samadhi, since they have
>>> not destroyed so that the post-samadhi life of the Jnani requires this
>>> non-binding form (lesha/vasana) of avidya is the one that sustains the
>>> body-mind of the Jnani till the fall of the body.//
>>>
>>> This is well understood.
>>>
>>>
>
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>
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