[Advaita-l] Advaita vEdAnta - Unit (25)

[Krishnamurthy Ramakrishna]

S. Jayanarayana wrote (also responding to Prem D P and Kartik)

You are saying that bhAvarUpa adhyAsa has as its kAraNam an
abhAvarUpa aGYAna. This is strange for two reasons:

1) It seems that a real effect (bhAvarUpa adhyAsa) can arise out of
an unreal cause (abhAvarUpa aGYAna). This is not what advaita
teaches, AFAIK.

2) This is out-of-sync with traditional AchAryas who teach that
aGYAna is bhAvarUpa -- see for example the series posting by Anand at
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2007-March/019127.html
in this regard.

Can you please cite the references/sources for your information?

Response:
The sources:
1) BrihadAraNyaka bhAshya (4-3-20) - "sA cha avidyA nAtmanah svAbhAvikO
dharmah"

2) vEdAnta sAra by swami SadAnanda (33) - vastu saccidAnanda advayam brahma;
ajnyAnAdi sakala jaDa samUhah avastu (further in 34, swami SadAnanda
clarifies that when ajnyAna is presented as bhAvarUpa, he explains that it
is not 'sat'; if it is 'sat', it cannot be destroyed and there is no benefit
of mumukShatva; it is not abhAva for an ajnyAni, so it is described as
bhAvarUpa. Because ajnyAna has to be illuminated by Pure Consciousness,
being experienced by us ajnyAnis, it is described as bhAvarUpa).

3) NaiShkarmya siddhi (3-66) " sEyam bhrAntih nirAlambA sarvanyAya
virOdhini, sahatE na vichAram sA tamO yadvaddivAkaram"

4) vEdAnta PrabhOda by Swami Paramananda bhArati (a faithful follower of
Shankara) in Kannada, describes in detail the svarUpa of ajnyAna


Let us not see  every article under the "traditional" or "non-traditional"
microscope. In advaita there is no TWO. We are all seekers and could
challenge or seek clarifications with out reference to a label.
Thanks for the comments.

Regards,
K. Ramakrishna.