[Advaita-l] A reference to 'jIvAshritA avidyA'

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Ananda Hudli prabhuji
Hare krishna

A valid point raised by sureshvara himself, later developed by 
sarvajnAtman, and prakAshAtman of the vivaraNa school, is that in the 
state of deep sleep, avidyA is experienced. The person, upon waking up, 
exclaims "I did not know anything while asleep!" However, it is important 
to note that the there is no notion of jIva in the state of deep sleep. 
This shows that avidyA can exist  without the jIva. If this is the case, 
it follows that the locus of avidyA is not jIva but Brahman or pure 
Consciousness which exists in all the three states.

>  Yes, prabhuji, as you have rightly said there is no jeevatva or upAdhi. 
 Hence, there is an agrahaNa in sushupti. This has been clarified by both 
shankara & sureshwara.  But AFAIK, the 'hetu' for this agrahaNa is nothing 
but 'ekamevAdviteeyatva' of Atman nothing else.  Since in sushupti there 
is 'nothing' else to know, Atman is said to be 'adviteeya'.  shankara 
clearly clarifies in prashna bhAshya that : 'etasmin (sushupta) kAle 
avidyA kAmakarma nibandhanAni kAryakaraNAni shAntAni bhavanti, teshu 
shAnteshvAtma svarUpaM upAdhibhiH anyathAvibhAvyamAnaM advyamekaM shivaM 
shAntaM bhavati'.  Here shankara makes it clear for us during the sushupti 
period since there is an absence of kAryakaraNa (upAdhi-s)Atman remains as 
advaya (non-dual), shivaM and shAnta.  Yes, upon waking up, jeeva tells 
that I didnot know anything while asleep, But reason for this not knowing 
(agrahaNa) anything is not due to avidyA, but it is because of 
ekamevAdviteeyatva of Atman in that state.  shankara in bruhadAraNyaka 
makes this point amply clear that in sushupti agrahaNAtmaka ajnAna hetuM 
is nothing but 'ekatvaM' (ekatvamenAjnAnahetuH).  I think even sureshwara 
also accepts this agrahaNa in sushupti and clarifies reason for this is 
existence of 'kevala kUtasTha drushti'. 

>  Kindly correct me if I said anything wrong here prabhuji.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar