[Advaita-l] Avidya is Triguna in Paramartha Sara

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

I recently started teaching the text Paramartha Sara which is authored by
Adi Sesha according to our tradition. This text is supposed to predate Adi
Shankara's commentaries.

The verse 47 (verse 49 in some books) in this text as given in the sanskrit
documents site is as follows:

त्रिगुणा चैतन्यात्मनि सर्वगतेऽवस्थितेऽखिलाधारे ।
कुरुते सृष्टिमविद्या सर्वत्र स्पृश्यते तया नात्मा ॥ ४७॥

triguṇā caitanyātmani sarvagate'vasthite'khilādhāre ।
kurute sṛṣṭimavidyā sarvatra spṛśyate tayā nātmā ॥ 47॥

Ignorance made of three constituents (sattva, rajas, tamas) ever produces
the creation in the Consiousness-Self, which is all pervasive,  persistent,
the basis / support for everything; This Self is not touched by that
Ignorance.

The commentator of this text Raghavananda says the below on how Ignorance
is Triguna:

Here Ignorance's power to veil the nature of Atma is Tamas, power to
project the not self is Rajas and the power to illumine the not self is
Sattva.

with love and prayers,
Jaishankar

Note: link to the text
https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/paramArthasAraAdishesha.html