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

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:21 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

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> I like the way you argue for each & everything with such an enthu :-))
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Thanks for the compliment.

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> See prabhuji, here context is 'avidyA' and its usage in prasthAna trayi
> bhAshya as 'adhyAsa'.



Savithri Madam said:

I would say the sUtra prasthAna has more authority on the meaning of
avidya/adhyAsa than the possible different meanings in the different
upanishads from different rishis at different times.

Fro this I showed that there is no  conflict in the meaning of
avidya/adhyasa and therefore there is no need to call in the authority of
the Nyaya prasthana to decide on this.

And to say that this prasthana is not to be held as the ultimate one, I
quoted the mantra on the Mandukya.  And since you came up with an irrelevant
objection, I showed the last lines of the adhyasa bhashya to prove that the
context is avidya nivritti throu atma jnana, which is the virodhi of avidya
and resulting in moksha prapti.  This is the meaning given by the Acharya
for the nirvachana of the word 'Upanishad'. Also note that when the Acharya
is making this statement: "asyAnarthahetoH prahANAya .....' His intention is
NOT to decide upon the meaning of avidya/adhyasa. He wants us to note that
the superimposition is the cause of smsara. To quote this sentence
completely out of its true context of bandhaaat jnaanena mokshaH, and
erroneously take it as a support for avidya = adhyasa is the folly of some
people.



 Yes, there is a mention of self knowledge in the above bhAshya vAkya but
> what shankara contextually explaining here
> is which is that 'anarthahetu'...and sAvitri mAtAji quoted above bhAshya
> vAkya to show you mutual superimposition (anyOnyAdhyAsa / adhyAsa) is the
> main cause for our bandha and the term avidyA mainly used in prasthAna
> trayi bhAshya as adhyAsa only, that is what she is arguing with you..is it
> not??  .



This is exactly what I have discussed in my article and shown is not the
case : //the term avidyA mainly used in prasthAna
trayi bhAshya as adhyAsa only//


When you read the article and the discussion that followed correctly you
will realize how absurd & out of context your objection is!!! Like this you
have quoted so many bhAshyA vAkya-s out of context to prove avidyA is not
mAyA... I will not waste time to take all those bhAshya vAkya-s in detail to
prove how those quotes are hardly near to your contention i.e. avidyA=
adhyasa, avidya is not maya, etc.

Please let this forum know what is the SSS-understanding of the term
'samskaara vashaat' of Brahma sutra 4.1.15.  Your effort in this direction
would be much more fruitful.

Best regards,
subrahmanian.v  .

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