[Advaita-l] Avidya is virodha or abhava-1 review and redo

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

See below.

On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM Michael Chandra Cohen <
michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste Jaishankar,  Sir, you provide false translation
>
Can you give an instance where my translation is false? Those who copy
paste from chatgpt should not be accusing others. I don't need any
translation. We can have a discussion in Sanskrit itself which will be
better.


> , asat avyakta
>

The Upanishad vAkya is असद्वा इदमग्र आसीत् । ततो वै सदजायत । asadvā
idamagra āsīt । tato vai sadajāyata । Here Shankara says the asat mentioned
by Upanishad is not atyanta asat but avyākṛtaṃ  - असदिति
व्याकृतनामरूपविशेषविपरीतरूपम् अव्याकृतं ब्रह्म उच्यते ; न पुनरत्यन्तमेवासत्
। asaditi vyākṛtanāmarūpaviśeṣaviparītarūpam avyākṛtaṃ brahma ucyate ; na
punaratyantamevāsat ।


> , beg to ignore English terms that you yourself employ
>

In my understanding satyam, anrtam and atyanta asat as defined by
bhAshyakAra are definitely Ontological terms. But I don't want to discuss
on whether they are Ontic or Epistemic as these categories are not relevant
here. Let us stick to Sanskrit terms and definitions as given by
bhAsyakAra.

, cherry pick a phrase while ignoring its context,
>

You have already decided something and trying to desperately force fit
every bhAshya-vAkya as per your agenda by using sophistry and irrelevant
quotations from paaramaarthika standpoint and then accuse me of cherry
picking. This is really funny. Your only argument till now is everything
which bhAshyakAra has said is figurative which we call Gouna in Sanskrit.
But figurative meaning should be taken only if direct meaning or vAchyArtha
does not make sense or is not appropriate. That is not at all the case
here. If you cannot agree with the straight forward meaning of what
bhAshyakAra teaches then better that you propose that SSSS prakriya is an
independent prakriya. Why desperately hold on to bhAshya for validation?

create bhava padartha out of tarka and side step every objection by
> repeating the same challenge.
>

I am not creating anything. I am just quoting bhAshya and anyone who reads
the bhAshya with an open mind and common sense cannot come to any other
conclusion.

Now let me repeat. Are your jnAna-abhAva and jnAna - satyam, anrtam or
atyanta asat?

with love and prayers,
Jaishankar