[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Re: avidyA is adhyasta (superimposed) in AtmA

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Jaishankar ji
That's a very important point and thank you for highlighting that.  The
english word 'qualities' for  the  triguNas does not capture the idea that
there is no other 'substantive' that these three guNas putatively qualify.
The triguNas themselves are dravyas, the pariNAmI upAdana kAraNam; they are
the constituents of prakRti.

A friend of mine once rejoined highlighting the many contextual meanings of
the word guNa, that the word guNa is not always quality , else guNa sandhi
in grammar would be "quality" sandhi - a meaningless construct!

On the second point -
That this tAmAsa pratyaya which is AvaraNAtmaka, is the cause of the
avidyAtraya viz., agrahaNa, saMshaya-grahaNa and viparIta-grahaNa is
noteworthy.

Because it is axiomatic for SSSS that there is no fourth idea/entity/cause
of the avidyAtraya.

Having said that, since avidyA (including its AvaraNa aspect)  is
sequentially prior to the three guNas, and avidyA is not a product/kArya or
expression of the three guNas, how are we to assimilate the idea of avidyA
being a 'tAmasa' pratyaya.

I would understand that although avidyA is the very cause of even
antaHkaraNa, the antaHkaraNa by its capacity for tAdAtmya with cit,
nevertheless appears to carry or is the Ashraya of that very mUlAvidyA. In
that sense, from the POV of mUlAvidyA expression in the antaHkaraNa, we can
call avidyA a tAmasa *pratyaya*.

I request you to clarify and kindly share your thoughts on this.

Om
Raghav


On Fri, 31 Jan, 2025, 1:34 pm Jaishankar Narayanan via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> Bhashyakara by saying mulAvidya is tAmasa has clearly pointed out that it
> is upAdAna as the triguna - sattva, rajas and tamas are dravya as per
> Sankhya terminology. Many people are confused because Guna is generally
> translated as quality in keeping with Nyaya-Vaisheshika but when triguna is
> translated as qualities of prakriti it is wrong. Triguna are actually
> constituents of prakriti and are dravya.
>
> With love and prayers,
> Jaishankar
>
> On Thu, 30 Jan, 2025, 5:03 pm Sudhanshu Shekhar, <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com
> >
> wrote:
>
> > Hare Krishna Bhaskar prabhu
> >
>
> The AvaraNa is avidyA, what we call as mUla-avidyA. तामसो हि प्रत्ययः,
> > आवरणात्मकत्वात् अविद्या विपरीतग्राहकः, संशयोपस्थापको वा, अग्रहणात्मको वा.
> >
> >
> >
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