[Advaita-l] mUlAvidyA debate [Was Swami Satchidanandendra Saraswati]

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

Now, on to svAmi satchidAnandEndra sarasvati's position. Quoting the
adhyAsa
bhAShyaM of shaN^kara, the svAmi claims that avidyA is not used in the
sense
of mAyA, but is only used in the sense of adhyAsa.

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Yes, the same has been confirmed by bhagavadpAda himself & categorically
says this adhyAsa is called avidyA (kindly refer adhyAsa bhAshya)...mAya
cannot be equated with avidyA since shankara himself clearly states that
mAya is avidyAkruta (cooked by avidyA), avidyAkalpita (conjured by or
imagined by avidyA), avidyApratyupasthApita (projected by avidyA) etc.

Reddy prabhuji:

Some other interesting points (which I will not explore further):
-- svAmi satchidAnandEndra's views are very close to the dR^iShTi-sR^iShTi
vAda (it seems he acknowledges it), which is rejected by shaN^kara.

bhaskar:

I dont think anywhere in his prasthAna trayi bhAshya shankara categorically
asserts that it_is_his theory of creation...he neither clearly endorses
Srushti drushti vAda nor drushti srushti vAda.   At various places in his
bhAshya work shankara contextually agrees Srushti drushti vAda coz. he
thinks the drushti srushti vAda is more logical when compared to
bahyAstitva vAda or srushti drishti vAda..But it is difficult to prove that
neither srushti drushti vAda nor drushti srushti vAda is superior to
other...infact gaudapAdAchArya himself discusses these two different view
points in his kArika..

RB prabhuji:

This requires a better understanding of the definition of mithyA as deduced
from
taittirIya upaniShat.h bhAShya (TUB) 2.1.1 of shaN^kara by the svAmi.
-- svAmi satchidAnandEndra holds that there is no avidyA in deep sleep,
whereas the traditional position is that an individual identifies with his
kAraNa sharIra which is given the technical name of avidyA.

bhaskar :

In addition to Vedanta Prakriya Prathabhigna (The Method of Vedanta), I
humbly request you to study Sri SSS works such as mUlAvidyA nirAsa &
maNdUkya rahasya vivrutti to get more clarity on swamiji's stand on these
issues...The topics mentioned above have been comprehensively & exclusively
dealt with by our swamiji.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar