Why IGNORANCE sould be called as 'absence of knowledge' ??

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praNams

Hare Krishna

 

I know, I should have written this long back..but could not do that in time due to time constraints & other priorities..Here is my understanding about the issue :

 

Why we should say avidyA / ajnAna is kEvala jnAnAbhAva?? It is because of the simple fact that we do not know who we are!!?? This absence of knowledge, that I am THAT is the main cause (it is not mUlAvidyA of vivaraNa school) of my wrong identification with body, mind intellect...In other words, absence of the brahmAkAra vrutti is the main cause for our avidyA...so avidyA is nothing but absence of true/absolute knowledge (paramArtha jnAnAbhAva)...

 

And, more importantly it is not only my understanding, shankara himself while describing the avidyA lakshaNa, categorically says avidyA is jnAnAbhAva and once jnAna dawns this ajnAna will be eliminated automatically..In the bruhadAraNyaka upanishad bhAshya (3.3.1) shankara quite clearly states : yadi 'jnAnAbhAvaH' yadi saMshaya jnAnaM yadi vipareeta jnAnaM vA uchyate ajnAnamiti sarvaM hi tat jnAnEnaiva nivartate..Here point to be noted that shankara calls *agrahaNa* or tattvAgrahaNa as *jnAnAbhAva..So, from this it is quite evident that tattvAgrahaNa, in the form of absence of knowledge is itself avidyA.

 

Since ajnAna is jnAnAbhAva, we can say after the dawn of jnAna this ajnAna will be annihilated completely without any trace..but if this ajnAna is bhAva rUpa nothing can destroy an existing thing...jnAna can only illumine an existing thing..it only reminds our svarUpa, it does not / cannot do anything if ajnAna is really there in bhAva rUpa..Shankara makes his stand crystal clear & declares in sUtra bhAshya (2.2.22) that if jnAna is bhAva rUpa the complete elimination is not possible : " na hi bhAvAnAm niranvayO nirupAkhyO vinAshaH saMbhavati...It is true also, whatever is really there cannot be destroyed ..nAbhAvO vidyate sataH..are the words of geetAchArya...

 

To the best of my ability I've provided shankara bhAshya vAkya with that I'd like to once again emphasize that as per my understanding, according to shankara avidyA is jnAnAbhAva only..it is not anyway a positive entity & it does not has a coexistence along with brahman since anAdi kAla...If anybody wants to prove that avidyA is bhAva rUpa, sanAtani etc. let them do so with appropriate quotes from shankara bhAshya...I would be the first person to accept & analyse it further...Kindly dont say above quotes are out of context & whole bhAshya to be understood to know real purport of shankara etc. etc...I am sorry to say I have heard enough of that sort of teachings...If the above quotes are out of context & irrelevant, kindly clarify the same with appropriate & suitable quotes from shankara with your personal understanding...I humbly request prabhuji-s not to float their own understandings without any proper support from our advaita mUlAchArya i.e. shankara bhagavadpAda. Hope prabhuji-s would do the needful in this regard.

 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!

bhaskar