[Advaita-l] Hacker on bija and creation

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste ji

Thank you for sharing Hacker's views.

On Thu, 22 Aug, 2024, 5:33 pm Michael Chandra Cohen via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>    -
>
>    Namaste Sudhanshuji,
>
>
>    Attached also is Hacker’s 44 page pdf on avidya, maya, namarupa and
>    eshwara that should be required reading for any defense of mulavidya.
> You
>    have already taken issue with Hacker but only on one or two instances -
>    insufficient imho.
>    -


>    .". Nevertheless, this much can be affirmed with regard to
>    the differentiation of the interpretation of S. from that of all other
>    Advaitins-that in his case avidya is never designated as material cause
> of
>    the physical world. It is never referred to as upadana• karana or
> prakrti,
>    whereas even Suresvara, who is closer to S. than anyone else in his
>    understanding of avidya, uses the expression upadana to refer to avidya.
>

 It's significant that for Hacker, even Sureshvara is regarded as having
"diverged" from Shankara because of using the word upAdAna for avidyA. From
an emic (I e., sAmpradAyika) perspective, this is significant that even
etics (sAmpradAyikEtarAH) like Hacker acknowledge that Sureshvara's stand
is supportive of avidyA's upAdAna kAraNatvam and on this crucial issue of
avidyA=mAyA, there is no daylight between vivaraNa and vArtika prasthAna-s.


You also wrote quite rightly imho,  that -
" I suspect Hacker drew inspiration from SSSS though he only offers scant
   recognition"


Yes ji. Thats very reasonable to say SSS inspired Hacker. But amongst etics
(scholars who are outside the sampradAya, it's common if not customary to
not acknowledge emic (sAmpradAyika) scholars from whom they borrow/derive
their ideas. That's sad to know that Hacker gives SSS scant recognition or
credit.

>

Om
Raghav

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