[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Dr. Hegde: Key differences: SSS & PSA -- a fresh voice

[Michael Chandra Cohen]

Namaste Chandramouli, forgive me, please.

You asked,
Reg // SSS refers to *avidyā* as the 'primary superimposition' >
(*mūlādhyāropa*). It is the first and most fundamental teaching device, >
defined as the mutual superimposition of the Self and the non-Self //, > >
Does this not involve or imply a relationship between the Self and the >
non-Self ?. What is its status then, ontological and epistemolgical.

I was to say, suddha brahman is the only ontic and any relationship is
epistemological only, and end it there. But, then I asked Claude, how would
SSS respond:

The objection assumes that "mutual superimposition of Self and non-Self"
names a *relation* (*saṃbandha*) holding between two relata, and that a
relation owes us an account of its terms and its ground. But notice what
Śaṅkara actually does at the head of the Adhyāsa Bhāṣya, which is SSS's
whole touchstone. He first establishes the *impossibility* of any real
conjunction: *yuṣmad-asmat-pratyaya-gocarayoḥ … tamaḥ-prakāśavad
viruddha-svabhāvayoḥ itaretara-bhāvānupapattau* — subject and object,
contradictory as light and dark, *cannot* be mutually identified, nor a
fortiori their attributes. And *from* that established impossibility he
concludes the superimposition is *mithyā iti bhavitum yuktam* — and yet (
*tathāpi*) it proceeds, *satyānṛte mithunīkṛtya*, real and unreal coupled
by *mithyā-jñāna*, as the natural "I am this," "this is mine."

So the "relationship" is not a presupposition that *adhyāsa* requires; it
is the very content of the false cognition. The apparent bond is
*mithyā-jñāna-nimitta* — occasioned by error, not grounding it. To ask
"what is the ontological status of the relation between Self and non-Self?"
is therefore to take the explanandum (the false coupling) and demand for it
the dignity of a real connection — which is precisely the demand SSS spends
his corpus refusing. The impossibility of the relation is not a defect in
the account that some entity must repair; it is the *criterion* of the
thing's being superimposed. Śaṅkara front-loads the *anupapatti* so that
you cannot later try to make the coupling respectable.

There's a sharper point hiding in the word "mutual." At its root the
superimposition is *tādātmya* — false identity ("*aham idam*," I am this
body) — not *saṃsarga*, relation. "Relation" is already the wrong category
for an identity-error: there is no relation between A and A, only a
collapse mistaken for unity. The relational register ("*mama idam*," *this
is mine*) is the secondary, *saṃsargādhyāsa* layer, and it too is
*mithyā-jñāna-nimitta* — a superimposed relating, not a real one. So
insofar as the *primary* superimposition is identificatory, the request for
"the status of the relation" is partly a category mistake: at the root
there is no relation, there is a false identification.

This is also why SSS's chosen term is *mūla-adhyāropa* and not *mūlāvidyā*.
*Adhyāropa* is a *prakriyā* word — a deliberate positing-upon, made in
order to be withdrawn by *apavāda*. The name itself encodes the status: it
is the first and most fundamental thing the teaching superimposes so as to
rescind it, not a root-*substance* underlying the world. To read "primary
superimposition" as naming a primal *entity* is to swap *adhyāropa* (an
act/device) for *avidyā-as-stuff* (a *bhāvarūpa* material cause) — the
exact substitution he attributes to PSA.

On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 8:07 AM Michael Chandra Cohen <
michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Please remind me the issue
>
> On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 7:21 AM H S Chandramouli <hschandramouli at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Namaste Michael Ji,
>>
>> Since you posted such a detailed post, although authored by Dr Hegde, I
>> felt I may get a satisfactory authoritative response for my query. You may
>> recollect our recent brief discussion concerning the choice of  definition
>> of adhyAsa by Sri SSS. Then also there was no satisfactory authoritative
>> answer to my basic question. This time round, I was hoping  you may refer
>> the question to the author of the article posted by you and get an answer
>> from her at least since apparently she has undertaken a detailed study of
>> his works. Anyway Hope to get the answers sometime in the near future.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 3:51 PM Michael Chandra Cohen <
>> michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Namaste ChandramoulI haven't checked the reference but I imagine those
>>> terms need to be taken figuratively. It is clear relationship implies
>>> duality. Perhaps it is speaking from vyavaharika. 🙏🙏🙏
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 9:21 AM H S Chandramouli <
>>> hschandramouli at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Namaste.
>>>>
>>>> Reg  //  we try to connect these due to non-comprehension that leads
>>>> to misapprehension //,
>>>>
>>>> Do not the terms **connect** and ** leads to ** imply relationship /
>>>> sambandha?
>>>>
>>>> Regards
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 6:43 PM Raja Krishnamurti <
>>>> rajakrishnamurti at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Absolutely no relationship. Avidya is absence of true knowledge. That
>>>>> doesn’t mean it has any relationship with Reality. The connection we try to
>>>>> establish does not exist and we try to connect these due to
>>>>> non-comprehension that leads to misapprehension.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>>>>> <https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&af_sub1=Acquisition&af_sub2=Global_YMktg&af_sub3=&af_sub4=100000604&af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_&af_ios_store_cpp=9d3a686e-218d-4849-8298-b480188dc8ac&af_android_url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.yahoo.mobile.client.android.mail%26listing%3Demail_signature>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Monday, June 29, 2026, 6:06 AM, H S Chandramouli via Advaita-l <
>>>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jun 29, 2026 at 6:33 PM H S Chandramouli <
>>>>> hschandramouli at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> > Namaste.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Reg  //  SSS refers to *avidyā* as the 'primary superimposition'
>>>>> > (*mūlādhyāropa*). It is the first and most fundamental teaching
>>>>> device,
>>>>> > defined as the mutual superimposition of the Self and the non-Self
>>>>> //,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Does this not involve or imply a relationship between the Self and
>>>>> the
>>>>> > non-Self ?. What is its status then, ontological and epistemolgical.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Regards
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> > --
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