[Advaita-l] The Treatment of Avidya in Advaita - Part 1

[V Subrahmanian]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> In my considered opinion, it is a premature, hurried and flawed conclusion
> on those who have
> determined that 'according to Shankara 'avidya' is only adhyAsa'.
>
> >  Just a small clarification, according to shankara & Sri SSS avidya is
> NOT only adhyAsa but avidyA is also adhyAsa...


This is exactly my position too.


> As you know this will make
> lot of trouble to those who uphold the theory which propagates the
> material cause for adhyAsa & equating mAya with avidya.
>
> This is what enables the proving  of  the  kAraNa and kArya avidya very
easy.


> Since you spoke about the supremacy of the nyAya prasthana, let me quote
> one
> more popular saying:
>
> mAnDUkyam ekameva alam mumukShUNAm vimuktaye - the Mandukya upanishad
> alone
> is sufficient for liberation.
>
> >  Again, as usual, out of context quote!!  here what we are doing is
> discussion (you may term it as debate) not the liberation...Yes, for the
> liberation, for a yOgya adhikAri why need even mAndUkya, only one sentence
> tattvamasi is more than enough is it not??..why on the earth you have to
> split your hair to prove there is upAdAna kAraNa for adhyAsa :-))
>

It is not 'usual' for me to make a quote 'out of context'.   What can be a
better context than this for me to quote the one that I did than this:

(quted by Smt. Savithri Devaraj) :

He concludes adhyAsa bhAshya thus - "asyAnarthahetoH prahANAya atmaikatva
vidyA pratipattaye sarve vedAnta Arabhyante| yathA cAyamarthaH sarveSAm
vedAntAnAm tathA vayamasyAm sArirakamImAmsAyAm pradarshayiShAmaH |" This
blunder (mutual super imposition of Atma-anAtma) is the cause of all world
delusion. All upanishads begin to destroy this ignorance completely and
teach self knowledge. We will proceed to show how this is understood to be
the central teaching of all upanishads through this sArirakamImAmsa.
[Translation is mine]

This is indeed the context of bandha and moksha.

Regards
subbu