[Advaita-l] [advaitin] 'Avidya' is not 'only' Adhyasa; it's more than that

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Chandramouli ji. Raghav ji. Venkatraghavan ji.

We do hold that avidyA is adhyasta on Brahman and that avidyA is anAdi.

But that does not prohibit the opponent from charging us with
AtmAshraya-dosha.

There has to be a valid logical answer. We cannot say that we believe thus
and hence there is no AtmAshraya-dosha.

In fact, the dualist can respond to SS 1.55 by saying that -- the example
of bheda only shows that anavasthA-dosha is inapplicable. The
AtmAshraya-dosha is intact.

The response is given thus --

1. when the AtmAshraya-dosha of bheda does not cause any harm to
prapancha-paramArtha-vAdI, how can it cause any harm to
prapancha-mrishAtva-vAdI (advaitI).
[
https://archive.org/details/sankshepasharirakamnrisimhashrampart1a1b234/Sankshepa-Nrisimha%201A/page/n77/mode/2up
]

2. Just as AtmA is swa-para-nirvAhaka on account of having jnAna-shakti,
ajnAna is also accepted as swa-para-nirvAhaka on account of its own shakti.
ajnAna, in siddhAnta, is accepted to be having cichitra shakti.

Overall, the issue is not very simple. The AtmAshraya-dosha is very much
chargeable against avaita.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.