[Advaita-l] avidya vs maayaa - What is the difference?

[Bhaskar YR]

However, I must say first that myarguments are not against Vedanta shaastras.  Second, the proposition is only thatby equating both avidya and maaya as the same, we are unnecessarilycomplicating the doctrine by that equation as evidenced by manypurvapakshas.  

praNAms Sri Sada prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Yes, treating avidyA and mAya are synonyms not only complicates the siddhAnta it will harm the siddhAnta.  mAya is in Ishwara and it is IshwarAdheena and jeeva is not mAya katru, it is maheshwara is mAyin says shvetAshvatara.  Hence jagat is the effect of mAya which is same for everyone whereas adhyAsa is effect of avidyA, it exists only in the mind of particular jeeva it cannot be known by others.  I have to introduce one stree shareera as my wife, I have to introduce one boy/purusha shareera as my son and identify other shareera-s as my relation etc.  here sthree purusha etc. is not my srushti, my srushti is wife, son, in-laws etc. If I (un)fortunately take saMnyAsa tomorrow :-) there will be no more wife, son, in-law relations there will be only Ishwara srushti like stree-purusha, sthAvara jaNgama...hence samsara is avidyA kalpita whereas jagat is Ishwara srushti.  Hence somewhere, shankara clarifies for the adhyAsa of the jeeva the Asare is mAya kArya.  This mayA is parApara prakruti of Ishwara which is pariNAmi nitya which has been compared to 'anna' in geeta bhAshya by shankara where as jeeva's avidyA / adhyAsa is 'visha'  saMyukta with this 'anna'.  At any stretch of our imagination we cannot say avidyA and mAya are paryAya pada-s since one is anna and another is visha !!  

And in one of the vedAnta shibira discourses at kAryAlaya I heard that both avidyA and prakruti have different vyutpatti (dhAtu or something like that don’t remember exactly, since I am not familiar with saMskruta vyAkaraNa) we should not try to equate these words and use them alternatively  as synonyms.  So, you can be assured yourself that when you say avidyA and mAya are different you are representing the vedAnta stand only and it is not fresh / new innovation  :-) 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar