[Advaita-l] The other side of the story of avidyA AND mAya

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

The subject avidyA = mAya has been done and dusted somany times but still rising its hood in one or the other way to prove apple = orange just because both are fruits 😊 The other side of the story is still remain valid that avidyA is never be the mAya in shankara vedAnta (no matter irrelevant 101 quotes from bhAshya to prove avidyA=mAya).  And moreover avidyA is not mAya even if you consider mAya is ‘avidyA ‘kruta’ OR mAya as Ishwara’s inexplicable shakti.  If mAyA and avidyA are one and the same bhAshyakAra would not have used ‘saMyukta’ pada to join avidyA with mAya (calling ego as avidyA bhAshyakAra ‘joins’ this avidyA with avyakta / mAya, if both avyakta and avidyA both are same bhAshyakAra would not have taken trouble to join these two different things 😊) .  Yes, mAya is sometimes called avidyA just like showing the cash bag and saying this is cash or vishAnna as visha.  avidyA saMyukta mAya, avidyA lakshaNa mAya, avidyA pratyupasthApita mAya, avidyA kruta mAya etc. proving beyond doubt avidyA is something different from mAya and mAya pertains to Ishwara / brahman or avidyA is antaHkaraNa dOsha of the tiny jeeva.  This is quite clear in the bhAshya vAkya where bhAshyakAra uses the same word avyakta which is being identified with avidyA when applied to jeeva and identified with mAya when applied to hiraNyagarbha in the same sUtra.

mAya = prakruti, mAyin =parameshwara
mAya=avidyA, mAyin=avidyAvanta=parameshwara, so parameshwara is avidyAvanta as per the mAya=avidyA vAdins and as per them parabrahman is avidyAvanta or avidyA has the direct Ashraya in parabrahman itself 😊


Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar