[Advaita-l] A reference to 'jIvAshritA avidyA'

[Antharyami]

Hari OM~

Sri Anand ji and Sri Bhaskar ji,



Elsewhere in the *bhamati, *vacaspati misra, remarks, ‘vastutaH
anavacchinnaM caitanyaM tattvA-anyatva anirvacanIya avyAkRta vyAcikIrSita
nAma-rUpa viSaya avacchinnaM sat jnAnaM kAryaM tasya kartA IsvaraH jnAtA
sarvaj~naH sarvashaktiH’ – here vAcaspati misra makes it clear that Isvara
– the upahita caitanya as well as the shuddha caitanya cannot be the locus
of avidya. It is the jiva whose capacity of operating the Aloka-AkAra vRtti
(the modification of mind unto the object) is the locus of avidya. Even in
the Ista-siddhi, Vimuktatman iterates the bhamati view that there must be
someone who characterizes the ignorance, - for instance – ‘I do not know
who I am in reality’ – here the ‘i do not know’ = ajnAna is qualified by
‘absence of the knowledge of reality’. Now, the locus of the absence of the
knowledge of reality can be jiva alone, who is the avacinna caitanya and
not the upahita caitanya – the Isvara or the suddha caitanya. The second
reasoning for jiva ashrita avidya prakriya is held by Acyuta krSNAnanda. He
maintains that the Aloka AkAra vRtti orginates from the mind
(antah-karaNa), which is an indriya in the bhamati prasthana (as opposed to
VivaraNa position). Isvara – the upahita caitanya is devoid of any indriya
and hence for the upahita caitanya AlOkya AkAra vRtti cannot be made
applicable and in which case the upahita caitanya cannot be the locus of
avidya. In the Bhamati tradition, AchArya’s bhaSya statement to Isa Up.
Mantra-4, ‘sad-upAdhikRtAH sarvAH saMsAravikriyA anubhavatI iti avivekinAM
mUDAnAM anekamiva prati dehaM pratyavabhAsata’ – is considered to be a
pramANa for the jIvAshrita avidyA prakriya. In this statement Bhagavat-pAda
points out that it is the aviveki – the avacinna caitanya for whom the
saMsAra is evident and is prati-dehaM avabhAsataM – the transmigratory
modifications is experienced diversely to the individual bodies. Bhamati
considers this as a position that emphasizes tUlAvidyA and jIvAshritAvidyA.



With Narayana Smrti,

Devanathan