[Advaita-l] Imagined nature of root ignorance in vivaranam

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Sat Aug 18 20:54:33 CDT 2012


On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 12:50 AM, subhanu saxena <subhanu at hotmail.com>wrote:

> Sri Subramanian wrote:
>
> "I think it has been clarified enough times that the term 'bhAva rUpa
> avidyA' does not imply that it enjoys a status equal to the Brahman of
> Advaita"
>
> Namaste , yes I am well aware of this, and I actually debated whether to
> add my throw away line re experiencing Bhava-Rupa-avidya in deep sleep as I
> was worried it may detract from the main point I was making. Your response
> confirms that you probably missed the main point I was making for which
> apologies. On one hand I come across many from the traditon who state
> unequivocally that avidya "exists" in the deep sleep state. On the other
> hand you have clarified many times that mulavidya of the nature of
> Bhava-Rupa is an imagined superimposed notion that does not fall outside
> the realm of superimposition. Given that, it would be good if you can be
> explicit in what sense an imagined superimposed notion can be said to exist
> in a superimposed state as deep sleep. As mentioned before any
> clarifications from advaita-siddhi and even vivaranam would be helpful.
>
> With regards the quote from panchadashi re tamas the point is not about
> the bhava rupa status or not of avidya. Suresvara's clear definition of
> tamas as an imagined false notion of the nature " I do not know" cannot be
> challenged. If Vidyaranya has unequivocally accepted Bhava-Rupa avidya as
> an imagined notion within the realm of superimposition then he is
> consistent with Suresvara, otherwise he is not.
> Regards
> Subhanu
>

Namaste

Advaita accepts mAyA/avidyA to be triguNAtmikA.  Tamas is one of the three
guNa-s.  The nature of tamas is explained in the Bh.GitA: mohanam, etc.
And parallel to this Advaita is very certain that mAyA/avidyA is mithyA, a
superimposition. [bhUtaprakRtimokSham cha (abhAvagamanam) as clarified in
bhgitaa 13th chapter last verse/bhashyam]  So, within the Grand
Superimposition, all the other superimpositions can happily exist just as
subsets within a set.  For that matter, even sattva as a guNa and its kArya
are mithyA in advaita.  The jnanam that a person gets, even of Brahman,
surely a sattva-guNa kAryam, is ultimately mithyA in advaita, for bandha
and mokSha are both only relative, vyAvahArika.  [na nirodho na
chotpattiH..na mumuShurna vai muktaH....ityeShA paramArthatA ...Gaudapada]

Since creation, etc. and all activities within creation, including
bandha-moksha vyavahAra can happen only when the Great Tamas is there,
continuing in its latent and patent forms.  That is why the Shruti admits a
'tamas' along with Brahman even before creation in pralaya and in sleep.

regards
subrahmanian.v

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