[Advaita-l] [advaitin] what is abhava?

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri rAghava prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Perhaps what the word ekarUpa used by Bhaskar ji means is - If there is only one category of abhAva (I e., atyanta abhAva) accepted, one could say it is just "ekarUpa" in the language employed by SSS adherents. But then what of prAgabhAva which is accepted by SSS ji?

>  As you know I am not a logician (infact I myself proud to say despite my grand ignorance about nyAya shAstra) would like to understand these things in the light of day to day experience.  So whether Sri SSS agreed for prAgabhAva type of abhAva or something else is hardly a matter of concern.  Infact Sri SSS, in sugama,  contextually granting the status of prAgabhAva to the abhAva during the flow of discussion after hearing the various types of abhAva from the logician's desk.  We cannot say it is his final stand and final definition of anubhava sammata jnAnAbhAva.  The anubhava sammata jnAnAbhAva is very simple it is absence of knowledge.  This 'I don’t know' something which is quite common in all there is no need for finding the reason for it and asking the cause for it is also illegitimate.  Due to the absence of knowledge that we are brahman (akartru-abhOktru) we have been constantly identifying ourselves in jaagrat, Svapna, sushupti, seeing and experiencing different things in jAgrat and svapna with the help of antaHkaraNa, doing puNya, pApa, liking, disliking, taking birth meeting death etc. etc.  And when we realize that we are free from these upAdhi-s and we are secondless chaitanyam (parishuddha brahma/Atma) the knowledge dawns that we are bereft of these things.  But till the dawn of this knowledge we donot know this.  This ignorance of us about ourselves is called avidyA.  In vedAnta also this avidyA is called ajnAna, agrahaNa etc.  I don’t know where in the PTB we can have the definition of difference between avidyA as material cause and jnAnAbhAva as its product!!  This absence of knowledge about our svarUpa is what is called jnAnAbhAva.  And the adhyAsa is because of this absent of knowledge.  This ignorance (jnAnAbhAva) is not pravartaka as it is ekarUpa the direct pravartaka (or motivator) is adhyAsa and yeshaNa, kAma etc. though it can be said ignorance is the indirect cause for the pravartaka vrutti.  Sri SSS emphasizes that adhyAsa is the direct cause on account of which one thinks that he is dehavAn (dehAtma buddhi), sees the distinction between male-female, he is thin, fat, she is my wife, I am happy, I am sad etc. etc. and as a result accruing pApa and pUnya and succumbing to birth and death cycle.  So avidyA ( as jnAnAbhAva) is not directly responsible for this differentiation as it is ekarUpa / uniform in all of us.  It is only when we are suffering in adhyAsa leading us to avidyA kAma karma.  In the sUtra bhAshya it is specifically said that :  na cha avidyA kevala vaishamyasya kAraNaM ekarUpatvAt...rAgAdikleshavAsanAkshipta karmApeksha tu avidyA vaishamyakAree syAt.  And we say this avidyA is ekarUpa so it cannot be directly responsible for the differences. How this jnAnAbhAva is ekarUpa / uniform ??  the answer is simple and anubhava sammata that it is just the absence of knowledge which cannot be different in different jeeva-s hence adhyAsa.  The reason for the wrong knowledge (adhyAsa) is the absence of right knowledge (thought) in mind i.e. I am brahman.  The logicians may hammer this very simple lokAnubhava sammata definition of avidyA as jnAnAbhAva and adhyAsa as wrong knowledge from different angles and logics.  But in our books it remains as simple as this.  And this simple definition about our problem is good enough for us to strive hard for the right knowledge.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar