[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Bhavarupa Ajnana Tamas (Ignorance) - Nrsimha Tapini Upanishad and Gita Bhashya

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Sudhanshu Ji,

The gItA bhAShya quote is distinguishing the tAmasarupA avidyA from
agrahaNa, the experience of not knowing (agrahaNasya upalabdhi). Here the
tAmasarUpA avidyA is a 'thing', which leads to the experience of agrahaNa.
That is the crux of the bhAvarupA / abhAvarUpA debate.

The mANDUkya is equating the name of the thing - it is referred to /
denoted by the terms agrahaNa / tamas / avidyA. The veil is referred to as
agrahaNa, because one experiences agrahaNa because of it. It is not "not
knowing" itself, as alleged by the abhAvavAdins.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan



On Fri, 19 Jul 2024, 20:02 Sudhanshu Shekhar via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Venkatraghavan ji.
>
> //Thus, the phrase तामसे... आवरणात्मके सति अग्रहणादेः अविद्यात्रयस्य
> उपलब्धेः is also evidence of the AvaraNa being different to agrahaNa.//
>
> Indeed the phrase reads out like AvaraNa being different from avidyA-traya
> on account of सति सप्तमी.
>
> However, in MAnDUkya KArikA 1.12, agrahaNa and anyathA-grahaNa have been
> postulated as kAraNa and kArya respectively. Also, agrahNa has itself been
> stated to be darkness. तत्त्व-अग्रहण, तम and अन्यथाग्रहणबीज are equated in
> 1.12.
>
> कथं पुनः कारणबद्धत्वं प्राज्ञस्य तुरीये वा तत्त्वाग्रहणान्यथाग्रहणलक्षणौ
> बन्धौ न सिध्यत इति ? यस्मात् — आत्मानम् , विलक्षणम् , अविद्याबीजप्रसूतं
> वेद्यं बाह्यं द्वैतम् — प्राज्ञो न किञ्चन संवेत्ति, यथा विश्वतैजसौ ;
> ततश्चासौ #तत्त्वाग्रहणेन #तमसा #अन्यथाग्रहणबीजभूतेन बद्धो भवति ।
>
> So, from this, can it be deduced that avidyA which is AvaraNa is itself
> agrahaNa and samshaya-jnAna/viparIta-jnAna are anyathA-grahaNa? Since
> agrahaNa is the seed of anyathA-grahaNa, it cannot be abhAva and has to be
> bhAvarUpa. So, the bhAvarUpatva of ajnAna is admitted.
>
> This results in AvaraNa being identical to agrahaNa on account of being its
> very swarUpa and not separate therefrom. Sati saptamI can be explained in
> this manner also.
>
> Regards.
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