[Advaita-l] Bondage and Liberation,Logical or Illogical?

Srikanta Narayanaswami srikanta.narayanaswami at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 11 05:25:05 CST 2013


I think there is no real basis to differentiate between jiva's avidyA and
Ishwara's mAyA.  Shankara says in the Brahmasutra bhAShya:


तदधीनत्वादर्थवत् । ब्रह्मसूत्र १,४.३  ।

अविद्यात्मिका हि बीजशक्तिरव्यक्तशब्दनिर्देश्या *परमेश्वराश्रया मायामयी
महासुप्तिः**, **यस्यां स्वरूपप्रतिबोधरहिताः शेरते संसारिणो जीवाः
।*तदेतदव्यक्तं क्वचिदाकाशशब्दनिर्दिष्टम्ऽएतस्मिन्नु खल्वक्षरे
गार्ग्याकाश
ओतश्च प्रोतश्चऽ (बृ. ३.८.११) इति श्रुतेः ।
क्वचिदक्षरशब्दोदितम्ऽअक्षरात्परतः परःऽ (मु. २.१.२) इति श्रुतेः ।
क्वचिन्मायेति सूचितम्ऽमायां तु प्रकृतिं विद्यान्मायिनं तु महेश्वरम्ऽ (श्वे.
४.१०) इति मन्त्रवर्णात् । अव्यक्ता हि सा माया,
तत्त्वान्यत्वनिरूपणस्याशक्यत्वात्
।


We can see the close similarity between the words of the bhashyam above and
the GaudapAdakArikA -  अनादिमायया सुप्तः....and the Kathopanishat bhashya
अनाद्यविद्याप्रसुप्ताः.. for mantra उtत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत...
________________________________________________________________________________
I see that Sri.V.Subramanian goes out of context with the Karika "Anadi Mayaya"when he says that the words of the Bhashyam is similar to Gaudapada Karika.What is said in the Karika is the "Anadi mayaya suptah"jiva and what is said in the bhashya is the "Bija shakthi"and "Parameshwarasya Maya shakthi"which is Mahasuptih"where as in the Karika no mention is made about "Parameshwara".The Kathopanishath bashya "Anadyavidya suptah" and "utthishtata Jagrata'is clearly "Jiva para".The point that I would like to make is no mention of "Ishwara"is made any where in the Gaudapada Karika like it is made in "Brahma sutra Bhashya".Despite interpretation of V.Subramanian,the Gaudapada Karika doesnot mention of "Ishwara's Maya".it mentions only,"Anadi Mayaya suptah yada Jivah prabhudhyate".The Maya is in Jiva.Only Jiva is known to us,not "Parameshwara"who is yet to be established.
N.Srikanta.


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