[Advaita-l] avidya is Agantuka

Venkatraghavan S agnimile at gmail.com
Sun Jan 10 13:22:40 CST 2016


Namaste Sri ChandramouliJi,

"Reg <<  So अविद्या here is not used to represent मूलाविद्या, but simply
the manifestation of आत्म अज्ञानं, which can be आगन्तुकं. >>,
I do not think so. मूलाविद्या and आत्म अज्ञानं are synonymous and both are
not आगन्तुकं."

Thanks for the clarification. I agree - In fact I was just saying that it
is the  "manifestation" of आत्म अज्ञानं which is आगन्तुकं.

I suppose we are debating what
Anandagiri AchArya is referring to by the manifestation of avidya.

Pasting this section of AchArya's Tika from the mail that Subrahmanian ji
had kindly posted in the forum earlier:

"यद्यपि न आगन्तुकत्वमविद्यायाः न युक्तम्, तथापि अभिव्यक्ता सा अनर्थहेतुः
आगन्तुकी इति द्रष्टव्यम् ।

// Even though the adventitiousness of avidyā is not reasonable, yet, the
manifestation of avidyā, that is the cause of all trouble, is definitely
adventitious. Thus is to be understood.//"

Because अविद्या here is described as आगन्तुकं, I was arguing that this
अविद्या is not मूलाविद्या, but it's manifestation, as absence of right
knowledge, or alternatively as wrong knowledge, located in the mind, which
does have a beginning and an end and can be called अगन्तुकं.

Sri Anandagiri is saying that that अभिव्यक्त अविद्या is अनर्थहेतु and it is
the अभिव्यक्त अविद्या that is described as आगन्तुकी by BhagavatpAda.

If the specific context of this भाष्य वाक्य is purely सुषुप्ति, and if
आगन्तुकत्वं of कारण शरीरं refers only to the अभिव्यक्तं of कारण शरीरं
during सुषुप्ति as you argue, how can such an अभिव्यक्तं be described as
अनर्थहेतु by Sri Anandagiri AchArya? The अनर्थहेतुत्वं of अविद्या is a
consequence of its very nature, and doesn't require its अभिव्यक्तं
described as something occurring during सुषुप्ति.

As an aside, Re: "कारण शरीर of a Jiva is no doubt अनादि but is considered
so in its unmanifest form. ",

In my view, अनादित्वं of कारण शरीरं is not limited to its unmanifest form
(I'm assuming you are using the same definition of manifestation here too)
In all three avasthAs the कारण शरीर is present, and as the Jiva is अनादि
(in all three अवस्थाs), the कारण शरीर is also अनादि, manifest or otherwise.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan


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