[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Upadesha SAhasrI 18.43

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

namaste Sudhanshuji,
The clarification is helpful - food for thought. 🙏

On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 9:09 AM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Namaste Michael ji.
>
> Your whole effort here is to prove that avidya is "determined through
>> logic" thus objectifying an avidya implying a positive something other than
>> AtmA, in this case the AbhAsa. This is determining the undeterminable by
>> the same undeterminable logic - clearly circular and a contradiction.
>>
>
> avidyA, which is AtmA-AbhAsa-Ashraya, is not determined through logic. It
> is sAkshi-bhAsya. However, the anAdi-tva, anirvachanIya-tva, bhAvarUpa-tva,
> jnAna-nivartya-tva etc, which are the attributes of avidyA, are proved by
> pramANa. They are not sAkshi-bhAsya. So, here also, ajnAna per se is
> sAkshi-bhAsya, but bhAvarUpa-anirvachanIya-tva-vishishTa-ajnAna which is
> nothing but visheshaNatA-avachchhedaka-prakAraka-jnAna is pramANa-janya.
>
> It has been shown in so many vakya-s that avidya cannot be determined
>> logically! It is not anumana siddha but anubhava siddha - undeniably
>> evident by experience. The question to resolve is the nature of this
>> experience and not to prove the existence of the snake.  We only have to
>> prove there is no snake.
>>
>
> As explained above. You correctly say that ajnAna is not pramANa-siddha
> but anubhava-siddha. This is what I mean by saying that ajnAna is
> sAkshi-bhAsya. However, as explained above, the visheshaNa-vishishTa-ajnAna
> is pramANa-vedya.
>
> Please note - there is no quarrel with respect to sAkshi-bhAsya vastu. We
> both agree that we are ignorant. But there is a dispute in
> pramANa-gamya-vastu. One who has the pramA, has the valid knowledge. And
> one who doesn't have that, fails to have correct knowledge.
>
> Since anirvachanIyatva of ajnAna is pramANa-siddha, both of us are having
> different opinion about that.
>
> So, the crux of the matter is this -
> bhAvarUpatva-anAditva-anirvachanIyatva-vishishTa-ajnAna is pramANa-gamya.
> Whereas ajnAna per se is sAkshi-bhAsya.
>
> Regards.
> Sudhanshu Shekhar.
>
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