[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Avidya for Srishti kartA brahman/Ishwara? Prashnopanishad bhashya

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, May 13, 2025 at 4:26 PM 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin <
advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:

> praNAms
>
> Hare Krishna
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> Another conclusive passage by Shankara in the above vein in the same
> bhashya: Here it is even more explicit: Shankara says Brahman is assisted
> by all accessories that are created by Avidya, for the purpose of Brahman
> being/becoming a Creator:
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> Ø     See sUtra bhAshya where bhAshyakAra explained how brahman can
> create without any upAdhi and sahakAri kAraNa and the purpose of creation.
>

*एतेनाविद्याकृतनामरूपाद्युपाधिकृतानेकशक्तिसाधनकृतभेदवत्त्वाद्ब्रह्मणः
सृष्ट्यादिकर्तृत्वे *साधनाद्यभावो दोषः प्रत्युक्तो वेदितव्यः,

In the above Prashnopanishat bhashya, Shankara says: Brahman that is
creating the world is endowed with upadhi that is characterized by aneka
shakti saadhana.  This upadhi is caused by avidya that in turn creates
nama, rupa, etc. So, without any upadhi Brahman cannot be the creator, says
Shankara.  Logically too, Nirguna, ekam eva advitiya Brahman, if it is to
create, unless there is some upadhi, it world be impossible to engage in
creation.



>
> Conclusion:  Since avidya is generally thought of to be associated with
> the jiva alone and not with Ishwara/Brahman the Creator, the explicit usage
> of avidya-created name form upadhi for Brahman brings us to conclude that
> for Shankara the māyā shakti that is used by Brahman for creation, is none
> other than Avidya. Even with the meaning avidya = adhyasa, it is only jiva
> that is associated with adhyasa and not Brahman/Ishwara.  Since Shankara
> uses the term Avidya as the power that creates name/form upadhis that are
> at play in Brahman creating the universe, this conclusion gets even more
> strengthened. In the view of Shankara the avidya shakti and the māya shakti
> are non-different.
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>    - Sorry to say very wrong conclusion there is no avidyA shakti, it is
>    mAya shakti which is not different from shaktivanta, mAya and avidyA can
>    never be equated at any stretch of imagination.  mAyA shakti used by
>    brahman is right but that is none other than avidyA is very wrong
>    conclusion.  In the srushti prakriya we have follow bhAshyakAra and shruti
>    which say Ishwara creates the jagat for the sake of jeeva to experience
>    their respective pApa puNya.  There are exclusive chapters / adhikaraNa
>    dedicated to discuss these issues in brahma sUtra.
>
>
That shakti is very much admitted by Shankara in that passage where only
Avidya is stated and not maya.

regards
subbu

>
>    -
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> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
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> bhaskar
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