[Advaita-l] [advaitin] T&D – Avidyā

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 1:50 PM 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin <
advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:

> Thus Shankara holds that Avarana to be the basic problem which expresses
> as the three stated effects.
>
>
>
> praNAms
>
> Hare Krishna
>
>
>
> The nature of avidyA categorically explained by bhAshyakAra, so at the
> first place it is not anirvachaneeya, if it is anirvachaneeya you
> (mulAvidyAvAdins) cannot announce/explain that there is brahmAshrita
> avidyA, it has AvaraNa, vikshepa shakti, capable enough to cover the brahmA
> capable to project non-brahman, exists in sushupti without the support of
> upAdhi etc. By holding it is anirvachaneeya you are making it more explicit
> and clearly describable concept😊
>

It is anirvachaniya because: 1. it is experienced, and hence not asat like
shashavishana. 2. It is bAdhita by vidya and so it is not sat like Brahman.
Shankara himself says in that very bhashya, with anvaya vyatireka logic
that avidya is there when the instrument manas is there and when the manas
is not there in mukti, avidya and its products are not there.

By enumerating 3 products of avidya Shankara categorically holds it to be
bhAvarupa. By giving the cataract example, Shankara makes it even more
emphatic: chikitsA is not done on a non-existent cataract. Similarly vidya
will not eradicate a non-existent avidya. na hi dRShTE anupapannam nAma
says Shankara elsewhere to say: when the effect is experienced, there is no
way the cause is denied.

regards
subbu



> BTW, brahmAshrita avidyA is an alien theory to shankara’s prasthAna traya
> bhAshya, nowhere bhAshyakAra eulogizes the avidyA and says it has super
> powers like AvaraNa and vikshepa.  The word avaraNatmakatvAt in geeta does
> not warrant to introduce the special force called mUlAvidyA, shankara
> explains this tAmasO hi pratyaya pertaining to the intellect /antaHkaraNa
> alone, by any stretch of our grand imagination we cannot paste this AvaraNa
> to brahman or the self (kshetrajna/vijnAnAtma).  Atleast those who are
> giving the quotes with regard to avidyA from geeta bhAshya should know the
> background of giving the example of cataract which hinders the eyesight and
> not the seer.
>
>
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
>
> bhaskar
>
>
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "advaitin" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to advaitin+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com.
> To view this discussion visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/advaitin/AM7PR06MB6625F93245D21902171CE074849EA%40AM7PR06MB6625.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/advaitin/AM7PR06MB6625F93245D21902171CE074849EA%40AM7PR06MB6625.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>