[Advaita-l] Karika 2.17 & Bhavarupa Avidya

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

Please clarify how Mulavidya Vada might interpret Gaudapada and Shankara
here to support a positive ignorance? Nikhilananda 2.17

अनिश्चिता यथा रज्जुरन्धकारे विकल्पिता ।
सर्पधारादिभिर्भावैस्तद्वदात्मा विकल्पितः ॥ १७ ॥

aniścitā yathā rajjurandhakāre vikalpitā |
sarpadhārādibhirbhāvaistadvadātmā vikalpitaḥ || 17 ||

17. *As the rope, whose nature is not really known,, is imagined in the
dark to be a snake*, *a water-line, etc., so also is the* Ātman *imagined* (*in
various ways).*

Shankara Bhashya (commentary)

It has been said that the imagination of *Jīva* (the *Jīva-* idea) is the
source of all (other) imaginations (ideas). What is the cause of this
*Jīva* -idea?
It is thus explained by an illustration:—It is found in common experience
that a rope, not known as such, is imagined, in hazy darkness, as snake,
water-line, stick or any one of the
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/mandukya-upanishad-karika-bhashya/d/doc143648.html#page-115>many
similar things. All this is due to the previous absence of knowledge
regarding the real nature of the rope. If previously the rope had been
known in its real nature, then the imagination of snake, etc., would not
have been possible, as in the case of one’s own fingers.

Similarly, *Ātman* has been variously imagined as, *Jīva*, *Prāṇa* and so
forth1 because It is not known in Its own nature, *I.e.,* pure2 essence of
knowledge itself, the non-dual *Ātman*, quite distinct from such phenomenal
characteristics indicated by the relation of cause and effect, etc., which
are productive of misery. This is the unmistakable verdict of all the
Upaniṣads.