[Advaita-l] Avidya

[Bhaskar YR]

There are many lacunae in logic when one entertains an erroneous idea with 
regards to avidya being jnana abhava or absence of knowledge 

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Before passing the judgement on the definition of avidyA,  one has to 
realize that it is our paramAchArya, bhAshyakAra himself who without any 
ambiguity saying that one of the natures of avidyA is jnAnAbhAva. Those 
who boldly announce that  jnAnAbhAva is an erroneous interpretation of 
avidyA are severely lacking the indepth study of bhAshya & exposing their 
poor fund of knowledge of advaita vedAnta as taught by shankara. 

Let these modern day revolutionery vedAntins be aside...Coming back to the 
topic, avidyA as jnAnAbhAva...one simple  example is morethan enough why 
avidyA is jnAnAbhava.  To the question :  why I donot know 4x3=12, the 
answer is as simple as the question : your lack of knowledge in maths: in 
dAshtrAntika if an ajnAni asks the question :  why I am  suffering from 
avidyA??  the answer is simple : it is because of the absence of 
AtmajnAna..Since we donot know that we are THAT, we are wrongly cognizing 
(vipareeta grahaNa) ourselves  or cognizing IT in a doubtful manner 
(saMshaya)...So, due to this jnAnAbhAva (absence or lack of jnAna)  jeeva 
suffers from ahaMkAra & mamakAra etc. 

If one does not understand the above  simple definition and writing pages 
& pages of theories in an attempt to propagate some alien theory like 
mulAvidyA (which is other than normally accepted & explained by shankara) 
he/she is doing so against the basic tenets of shankarAdvaita as enshrined 
in prasthAna trayi bhAshya.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar