[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Re: Difficulty in Ignorance Analysis

[Ravi Kiran]

Namaste Venkatraghavan Ji

Nice elaboration..

On Wed, Jun 10, 2015 at 3:07 PM, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Great explanation, Sri Chandramouli.
>
> To add to what you have said: Whenever an object such as pot, etc is
> perceived, that object is pervaded by the perceiver's thought or vritti.
> This vritti pervasion (vyApti) is  the remover of the veil of ignorance
> about the object. However, vritti being jadam, it cannot illuminate the
> object, which in the case of most objects are jadam too and therefore need
> illumination. The thing to note here is that vritti vyApti can only remove
> the veil of ignorance over the object. Object illumination requires
> something else.
>
> As we know, the mind reflects the sakshi chaitanyam or pure consciousness,
> as chidAbhAsa, or reflected consciousness. The chidAbhAsA is present
> whenever the mind is present, and as the mind consists of thoughts, the
> chidAbhAsa is present automatically in every thought too.
>
> When thoughts pervade the object, the chidAbhAsa that is present in the
> thought also automatically pervades the object. The chidAbhAsa, in the
> context of knowledge, is also referred to as phalam. Therefore chidAbhAsa
> pervasion or phala vyApti also automatically takes place whenever
> perception takes place. The phalam, which is of the nature of
> consciousness, when pervading the object is the thing which causes the
> illumination of the object, and not vritti, which is jadam.
>
> To summarise, vritti vyApti removes ignorance and phala vyApti creates
> illumination. Every knowledge of an object therefore requires three things
> - the object, vritti vyApti and phala vyApti.
>
> Coming to Sri VAdirAja, his claim that the removal of the veil of ignorance
> over the pot should also remove the pot adhyAsA does not have merit. Vritti
> vyApti can only remove the ignorance of the object over which the vritti is
> pervaded. So when perceiving a pot, vritti vyApti on the pot can only
> remove ignorance of the pot, not a cow that is not an object of perception
> at the time.
>
> Similarly, and this is the crucial bit of the argument, during the
> perception of a pot, the avidya that covers the pot is the only thing that
> is removed, and not the avidya that covers the upahita chaitanyam that is
> enclosed by the pot.



> Therefore in the perception of a pot, pot adhyAsa is not removed - the pot
> doesn't disappear. Then what about a gyAni who perceives Brahman
> everywhere? Does the pot disappear for him?
>
> In the case of a gyAni, the perception process is different. The gyAni
> perceives both the pot and the upahita chaitanyam in the pot. The latter
> perception is in the form of the thought - "I am the chaitanyam that is
> enclosed in the pot too".


or I am the chaitanyam in which the nAma rUpa pot appears (pratheethi)


> This is the vritti vyApti that removes the
> ignorance over the upahita chaitanyam or Brahman.
>
> ChidAbhAsa is present in this Brahman-knowledge-vritti too, however, no
> illumination is required by chidAbhAsa for knowledge of Brahman - because
> the Brahman is self effulgent. The very illumining power of chidAbhAsa is
> sourced from Brahman. Therefore, phala vyApti has no role in the knowledge
> of Brahman.
>
> To summarize, two vritti vyAptis take place for the gyAni - vritti vyApti
> of the pot, and vritti vyApti of the upahita chaitanyam of the pot.  Each
> of these vritti vyApti remove knowledge of the respective items being
>

seems a typo - Each of these vritti vyApti removes ignorance of ....


> pervaded by the vritti, viz., pot and upahita chaitanyam, or Brahman.
>
> As the phala vyApti of the pot takes place for a gyAni too, he has all
> three things required for the knowledge of the pot - the object (pot),
> vritti vyApti over the pot, and the phala vyApti over the pot.
>
> However, while a gyAni continues seeing the pot,  because the avidyA
> AvaraNA over the upahita chaitanyam is removed by his mind's Brahman
> knowlede vritti, he knows that the pot is simply mithya, and the upahita
> chaitanyam that is enclosed in the mithya is himself, the only satyam.
>
> Thanks