[Advaita-l] Creation ex nihilo (was Re: Advaita vEdAnta - Unit(27))

[K Kathirasan NCS]

Namaste Anandji,

If we wish to analyse the horns of a hare, what we will have in the end
is a non-existent horn. 

That fact that I have 'erroneous' knowledge is because the indriyas and
antahkarana together are naturally disposed to provide perceptions which
are interpreted by the 'incomplete' knowledge that the antahkarana
possesses. The antahkarana lacks the knowledge contained in the shastra
and hence with it's limited knowledge it makes ERRORS. 

To me it is quite simple. The very adhyasa is committed by the mind
naturally without even having to 'DO' it. We seem to be intent in trying
garland and do a puja to this Hare's horns. That seems to be the issue. 

Warmest Regards,
Kathirasan K
-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of Anand
Hudli
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2007 9:26 PM
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Subject: [Advaita-l] Creation ex nihilo (was Re: Advaita vEdAnta -
Unit(27))

kkathir at ncs.com.sg wrote:

>Let me illustrate this. Suppose you buy your first DVD recorder and you

>find yourself not knowing >how to operate it. What would you attribute
the 
>ignorance to? Would it be something in your >head that obstructs you
from 
>knowing how to operate it or is it the absence of the 'operating
>knowledge' of the DVD Recorder? The ABSENCE of the 'operating
knowledge' 
>caused an >EXISTENT effect of not knowing what buttons to press. Quite 
>simple right? Do we REALLY need >shabda pramana to come and rescue us
from 
>this simple issue?

I believe this example is not quite analogous to the avidyA issue.
Buying a 
DVD recorder without the slightest idea of how to use it is perhaps a
case 
of absence of knowledge. You seem to be saying that the cause of absence
of 
knowledge is absence of knowledge!! No problem here at all.

Now, contrast this with the case of having not absence of knowledge but 
*erroneous* knowledge. Suppose, you made certain "well considered"
decisions 
on what buttons to push and ended up with wrong results. These well 
considered decisions would certainly be based on some wrong assumptions
or 
wrong information that you may have collected somewhere.

In the case of avidyA too, nobody thinks "I do not have the slightest
idea 
what the world is." There is no absence of knowledge but erroneous 
knowledge, taking the world to be what it is not, atasmin.h tadbuddhiH.
And 
this erroneous knowledge (superimposition), if you consider it existent,

must necessarily have an existent cause. Any of the orthodox schools of 
Indian philosophy would agree with the principle that an existent effect

must have an existent cause.

Anand

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