[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Avidya is Triguna in Paramartha Sara

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Jaishankar prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I recently started teaching the text Paramartha Sara which is authored by Adi Sesha according to our tradition. This text is supposed to predate Adi Shankara's commentaries.


Ø     If this work is predated and proven by historians, would like to know whether bhAshyakAra anywhere quoted this in his PTB??

The verse 47 (verse 49 in some books) in this text as given in the sanskrit documents site is as follows:

त्रिगुणा चैतन्यात्मनि सर्वगतेऽवस्थितेऽखिलाधारे ।
कुरुते सृष्टिमविद्या सर्वत्र स्पृश्यते तया नात्मा ॥ ४७॥

triguṇā caitanyātmani sarvagate'vasthite'khilādhāre ।
kurute sṛṣṭimavidyā sarvatra spṛśyate tayā nātmā ॥ 47॥

Ignorance made of three constituents (sattva, rajas, tamas) ever produces the creation in the Consiousness-Self, which is all pervasive,  persistent, the basis / support for everything; This Self is not touched by that Ignorance.


Ø     No doubt this verse originated due to treating avidyA and prakruti/mAyA one and the same.   triguNAtimika prakruti is the upAdAna for the bhautika stUla shareera and Ishwara is the dAta of this shareera as per our previous karma phala and avidyA is of three types i.e. agrahaNa(jnAnAbhAva), anyathAgrahaNa and saMshaya.  There is no guNa in avidyA as it is anyway anishta.  And yes the self is touched by neither ignorance nor mAya/triguNatmika prakruti.  But prakruti does not exist apart from self and avidyA is not there when we realize the true svarUpa of this mAyA / prakruti.  That prakruti / mAya is nothing but parabrahman.

The commentator of this text Raghavananda says the below on how Ignorance is Triguna:

Here Ignorance's power to veil the nature of Atma is Tamas, power to project the not self is Rajas and the power to illumine the not self is Sattva.


  *   As bhAshyakAra clarified, avidyA  which is the absence of vidyA may be the reason for karma or prompts the jeeva to do karma. But the upAdAna for the Karma is only the triguNAtmika prakruti. For that matter avidyA as jnAnAbhAva  alone cannot lead to any inequality because it is all the same (since it is just the absence of vidyA). But when this avidyA mixed with faults like sattva, rajO tamO guNa-s of the jeevi (for example rAga-dvesha etc. causing the desire to do Karma that leads to inequality na cha avidyA kevala vaishmyasya kAraNaM ekarUpatvAt.  When the jeeva due to jnAnAbhAva that absence of jnAna that he is guNAteeta / nirguNa brahman, thinks that he is sAtvika, rAjasika etc. Hence Lord asks arjuna nishtraiguNyO bhavArjuna.  Here lord asking arjuna to realize his svarUpa and be situated in the self.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar