Digest Number 430

[Guest guest]

Re: Advaitin 430:

Ashish Chandra wrote:

 

I am not sure if it was Nitin or someone else who mentioned that the concept

of Maya was first propounded by Adi Sankara. Actually, there are references

to Maya in the Upanishads (I don't recall which ones) and Maya became

popular because of the Madhyamika school of Buddhism founded by Sri

Nagarjuna. Gaudapada, in his kArikas on Mandukya Up. does in fact make use

of Maya so it would be incorrect to say he wasn't aware of it. And it wasn't

Adi Sankara, at least in Advaita school, who first used it. In fact,

Gaudapada fought the Madhyamikas using their very own concepts combined with

his peerless logic!

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Dear Ashish,

 

You are right. The word maya is mentioned in the Rg-Veda, the Upanishads and

the Bhagwad Gita. But it is generally associated with Adi Shankara because

he dilated and expanded upon it and explained in detail how it causes the

apparent creation of the universe in Brahman.

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Ashish wrote:

As far as I understand, the difference between Sankaracharya's and

Gaudapada's handling of Advaita is in the separation of the Dreaming and

waking states of the former and the insistence of non-difference [in these]

by the former.

-------

Yes. Gaudapada said there was no creation. (Ramana Maharshi said this too).

Adi Shankara said that the creation appeared to exist because of maya. Both

actually mean the same thing. Eg, Gaudapada says that Sherlock Holmes does

not exist. Shankara says that he exists as a fictional character in a story.

-----

Zo Newell <zonewell

Re: Books

 

I have a translation of the abridged Yoga Vasistha, entitled VASISTHA'S

YOGA, published by SUNY Albany in 1993 (paper). The author is listed as

Swami Venkatesananda, and Sankaracharya's name does not appear anywhere.

The foreword and introduction indicate that Venkatesananda is actually

the translator and that the authorship of this "monumental scripture" is

debated by scholars. So this - or the full length version - is believed

to be by Adi Sankara? What's the debate?

----------------------

Dear Zo,

The abridged Yoga Vasishtha is probably the Laghu Yogavaasishtha of about

6000 slokas or the Sri Vasishtha Sangraha containing about 1700 slokas (a

condensed version). The original Yoga Vaasishtha contains about 32000

slokas. The original is not easily available.

 

The Yoga Vaasishtha has nothing to do with Shankaracharya. It purports to be

the teaching of Sage Vasishtha to his disciple Rama. But it is not a portion

of the famous Valmiki Ramayana. The original work is said to be by Valmiki,

but the abridged version is ascribed to Abhinandana of Kashmir, and the

condensation to Swami Jnanananda Bharati. I believe however, that some

scholars place the original also to a much later era, later than the

Bhagwad Gita, perhaps later even than Shankara.

---------

"Max Harris" <max_harris

Explaining Shankara

 

"A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy" Princeton University

Press in 1957.:

 

"The object-world is dependent. It is changing but is not a

mental fiction. We perceive objects; we do not invent the

corresponding ideas. The world perceived is as real as the

individual perceiver. Shankara repudiates the subjectivism

of the Yogacaras (Buddhist idealists). He also holds that

the world is not non-existent. It is not 'abhava (non-existent)

or 'sunya' (void). Nevertheless, the world is not ultimate

reality."

 

And later, on Moksha:

 

"Moksha is the direct realisation of the truth which has been

there from eternity. On the attainment of freedom nothing

happens to the world; only our view of it changes. Moksha

is not the dissolution of the world but is the displacement

of a false outlook (avidya) by the right outlook (vidya)."

 

Both passages are from page 507.

 

Now I ask: Is this a widely held understanding or a new

20th Century interpretation? If correct, does this understanding

imply that "illusion" is a poor English word for translating

whatever Sanskrit word or words it has been used to translate

in Advaita Vedanta contexts?

 

Namaste,

Max

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Dear Max,

 

Quoting from "The Science of Enlightenment" (see homepage

http://personal.vsnl.com/ntrasi)

 

(p.40-41)

 

Ignorance:

 

`Ignorance' or `bondage' is the term traditionally used in the spiritual

context to describe the condition of the average person who is under the

illusion that the `self' exists as a separate entity.

 

The word `ignorance' (avidya, ajnana) used in this way does not refer to

the lack of any specific knowledge or information, which is the usual

meaning of the term. The actual meaning here is `delusion,' a wrong

perspective, an improper or distorted way of seeing things because of

which things are seen not as they are, but rather as they appear to be

from a separate, individual point of view. We do not see things as they

are. We either accept or reject, condemn or justify, identify with, compare,

match with our own expectations. In other words, we do not see things as

they are, but as how they would affect `me.' If we could just see things

without the intrusion of the `me,' that is, not from the viewpoint of a

`me' (indeed, not from any viewpoint at all), that would be seeing Reality.

 

Another word used more or less synonymously is maya, which is therefore

often translated as `illusion,' `delusion' or `ignorance.' But to be exact,

maya represents the cause of the illusion, and therefore denotes the entire

process by which symbolic thinking results in the `me'-illusion (Ch.1). On

the disappearance of avidya and maya, the world does not disappear (as

is often misunderstood), but is merely seen as it is, without distortion,

in its `suchness' (tathataa).

 

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Best wishes,

 

Nitin