[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Asked of Chatgpt: "Are there any definitions or descriptions that depict a positive ignorance in Sankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras or classic 10 Upanishads whether in context or otherwise?

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri MCC prabhuji
Hare Krishna

As for your clever analysis of mithyAjnana, I wish to point to other uses of mithya in the same text that support mithya jnana as opposed to mithya ajnana, i.e.,  mithyeti bhavitum yuktam,  mithunīkṛtya,  mithyāpratyayarūpaḥ.


  *   Yes that is now even Sri SSS observed in his Kannada book adhyAsa bhAshyArtha vimarshe.  Here mithyA is just false ( incorrect / untruthful/wrong) and jnAna is just knowledge.  In Kannada it is said : mithyA jnAna is “tappu tiLuvaLike”.  In this context of adhyAsa bhAshya adhyAsa just means conjure up, project what it is not there hence shankara used synonyms like adhyArOpa, bhrAnti (jnAna), mOha, viparyaya, vikalpa, viparyAsa etc.  To the word mithyA (false) the jnAna (knowledge) added to make the compound word mithyAjnAna, mithyApratyaya etc.  and to the vipareeta the synonyms of jnAna added as suffix to formulate the compound words like : vipareeta jnAna, vipareeta pratyaya, vipareetaadhigama etc.  And when explaining atasmin tadbuddhiH he also uses the words like anyathAgrahaNa, anyathAjnAna etc.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar