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

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

This is my last post in this thread. I am replying to some blatant
mischaracterisation of what I have written that too what I have written
directly quoting the bhAshya (which I think is deliberate as you don't have
any valid argument).



On Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 11:14 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.
>
>
>> I already give the instance. Your phrase 'asat avyakta' is a distortion
>> of Bhasyakara's intention in this discussion. Asat cannot create.
>>
>
I am not saying asat taken as non existence is creating anything. Here
clearly bhAshyakAra is saying asat has to be understood as avyAkrta and the
avyAkrta itself becomes sat which has to be understood as vyAkrta. This is
what the bhAshya says

 ततः असतः वै सत् प्रविभक्तनामरूपविशेषम् अजायत उत्पन्नम् । किं ततः
प्रविभक्तं कार्यमिति - पितुरिव पुत्रः ? नेत्याह । तत् असच्छब्दवाच्यं
स्वयमेव आत्मानमेव अकुरुत कृतवत् ।  tataḥ asataḥ vai sat
pravibhaktanāmarūpaviśeṣam ajāyata utpannam । kiṃ tataḥ pravibhaktaṃ
kāryamiti - pituriva putraḥ ? netyāha । tat asacchabdavācyaṃ svayameva
ātmānameva akuruta kṛtavat ।

I am not translating it as it is anyway useless for you.

Further both avyAkrta and vyAkrta are anrtam (Tai Up Bh 2.1) / asat (BG
2.16) and depend on brahman for their very existence.

It is funny to see those who claim jnAna-abhAva as kArana and bIja and that
it produces the kArya which is dvaita-grahaNa accuse me of saying asat can
create sat.

Shankara is the ultimate sadvAdi as he refuses to acknowledge any abhAva
which is qualified. All things which are 'produced' including jnAna which
is nothing but a manovritti already exist potentially and only manifest
under the right conditions as said by the bhAshyakAra in the ghatabhAshya.
If jnAna is potentially there in every mind but not manifest, it has to be
covered which is the avaraNa being talked about by Bhagavan and Bhashyakara
in BG chapter 5. You cannot simply brush it aside as figurative. If
Bhagavan had used avaraNa figuratively bhashyakAra would have mentioned
that it is figurative as he does in many other places for gouna usages. But
he simply takes the direct meaning and says tattvajnAna is covered by
ajnAna and when this ajnAna is destroyed then the jnAna shines forth.

Anyway this being kaliyuga I cannot expect a samvada that too in an online
forum. Om Shantih

with love and prayers,
Jaishankar