[Advaita-l] Locus of maayaa and avidyaa

[Bhaskar YR]

mAyA used in positive (daivim maya), neutral (trigunatmika maya) and 
negative (kutastha - kuta = crooked)connotations. avidyA is always 
negative. Is that right? 

praNAms 
Hare Krishna

Yes, the term 'mAya' has been used under different contexts by 
shankara...some times it is said maya's svarUpa is brahmAnanya and mAya is 
brahmAdheena, some times it is said mAyA is anirvachaneeya, mAyA  is 
avidyA parikalpita, avidyA kruta, avidyA pratyupasthApita, and somewhere 
in geeta bhAshya shankara insists that parA & aparA prakruti dvaya which 
is Ishwara mAya is 'nitya' and krishna tells it is 'mama 
mAyA'...nityAshvaratvAt Ishwarasya tatprakrutyOrapi yuktaM nityatvena 
bhavituM. prakruti dvayavatvameva hi Ishwarasya IshwaratvaM..Whereas when 
shankara talks about avidyA he always tells us that it has only three 
lakshaNa-s  i.e. jnAnAbhAva, adhyAsa and saMshaya.  He never equates 
avidyA with Ishwara and his prakruti dvaya nityatva to say avidyA = mAya.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar