[Advaita-l] Significance of Mula Avidya

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Thu Oct 26 14:40:22 EDT 2017


The Vedanta teaches that knowledge dispels ignorance. Hence, to be
dispelled, such an avidyā has to be an existent, positive, bhāvarūpa.   If
such ignorance is not admitted to be bhāvarūpa, knowledge cannot dispel
anything.  The BG says: ज्ञानेन तु तदज्ञानं येषां नाशितमात्मनः ।
Sureshwara says: तत्त्वमस्यादिवाक्योत्थसंयग्धीजन्ममात्रतः । अविद्या सह
कार्येण नासीदस्ति भविष्यति ॥ From these we can be sure that avidyā is a
positive, existent, bhāvarūpa entity. There has to be a something that
knowledge dispels. And that something need not be an absolute real. Just
because it is dispelled by knowledge it is jnānanivartya, and therefore
prātibhāsika.

vs

On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 11:01 PM, Aditya Kumar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>  True. Not only creation but also nature of the world, right? In my
> understanding this Mula Avidya makes the world neither subjective nor
> objective. We can never really say that jagat is purely subjective because
> Jiva itself is imagined first (vaitathya prakarana, mantra 16).
>     On Thursday 26 October 2017, 10:05:56 PM IST, Venkatesh Murthy via
> Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>  Namaste
>
> IMHO Mula Avidya is necessary for us to explain Creation of the World.
> Brahman cannot be Upaadaana for Jagat. If Brahman is Material Cause
> Jagat will become Satya like Brahman. Therefore we say Jagat's Material
> Cause is the Positive Mula Avidya. It has to be Positive because Jagat is
> positive. If it is only Absence or Negative - some positive thing like
> Jagat cannot come out of that pure Absence.
>
> On Thu, Oct 26, 2017 at 8:32 PM, Aditya Kumar via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > Namaste,
> > I want to understand the significance of Mula Avidya in Shankara's
> > Vedanta. It seems to me that Mula Avidya is the main distinguishing
> factor
> > between Vijnanavada Buddhism and Vedanta. Is this Mula Avidya also the
> > reason why we have vyavaharika and paramarthika satyas?
> > I haven't fully studied SSS views on it. Hence I am keen to know if there
> > are any implications if we consider Mula Avidya to be positive in nature
> or
> > otherwise.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> > http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
> >
> > To unsubscribe or change your options:
> > http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> >
> > For assistance, contact:
> > listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>


More information about the Advaita-l mailing list