[Advaita-l] Ontological status of avidyA

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sada prabhuji
Hare Krishna

>  how are you Sri Sada prabhuji??  Hope you are doing well.  

Shree Sachchidanandendra Saraswati (Bhaskarji parama guru) argues vigorously that according to Shankara avidya is not bhaava ruupa but is abhaavaruupa.

>  We discussed this topic somany times earlier without any amicable understanding is it not??  Interestingly, this mUlAvidyA or bhAvarUpa avidyA which has the Ashraya in brahman itself raising its hood in one or the other way though brahmAshrita avidyA is conspicuous by its absence in shankara's prasthAna traya bhAshya.  ( I am not denying that there is a practice of quoting bruhadAraNyaka 1.4.10 to prove that avidyA has the ashraya in brahman since there is no second Chaitanya entity apart from brahman !!  but to say the least it is completely out of context and we have to look into it keeping in the mind that jeeva svarUpa is brahma but brahma is NOT jeeva).  And if one can see shankara's bruhad and geeta bhAshya, bhAshyakAra lists three lakshaNa-s of avidyA i.e. agrahaNa, anyathAgrahaNa and saMshaya (avidyA vipareeta grAhakaH, saMshayOpasthApakaH, agrahanAtmakO vA, yadi jnAnAbhAvaH, yadi saMshaya jnAnaM yadi vipareeta jnAnaM vA uchyate ajnAnaM iti sarvaM etc.)   This agrahaNAtmaka avidyA is NOT bhAva rUpa and it is ONLY jnAnAbhAva (absence of knowledge) which is the cause of adhyAsa (vipareeta grahaNa), here Sri SSS clearly says this use of word 'cause' is nepa mAtra and noway we can stretch this word to attribute upAdAna kAraNatvaM fot this abhAva rUpa avidyA.  More importantly this abhAva rUpa avidyA is eka rUpa and it cannot be a direct cause for our suffering (na cha avidyA kevalA vaishmyasya kAraNaM ekarUpatvAt clarifies shankara somewhere) But it is true that jnanAbhAva is the 'cause' for our adhyAsa.  And this cause needs to be understood in this way :  When by boss is not there at office (he is not there right now fortunately, hence writing leisurely :-) I will doing somany things which is no way  directly related to my official duty, once he comes back taking charge of the office proceedings, my attitude and work will be strictly in line with my official obligation and no deviation from that.  And now, can I say, 'absence' of my boss in the office is upAdAna and nimitta kAraNa for my unofficial activities??  No, absence of my boss is not directly related to my activities,  his absence is 'nepa mAtra' cause for my mischievous activities.   Boss is brahma jnana and his absence is jnAnAbhAva (not knowing that I am brahman) due to absence of this knowledge I do whatever I want (the wrong activities (adhyAsa) originated due to absence of this jnana.  Hence it has been said that as long as there is mithyAjnAna (any way it is not mithyA ajnAna it is mithyA jnana - Sri SSS clarifies this in Kannada 'tappu tiLuvaLike (wrong knowledge) in the jneya vastu we have the ayathArtha buddhi ( that this vishvaM is abrahma, asarva etc.) after the dawn of knowledge (samyak jnana) we have the yathArtha buddhi in jneya vastu i.e. sarvaM khalvidaM brahma.  Anyway, talked this topic n' no. of times earlier.  I think no need for digging deep again.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar