This idea of ignorance or Maya requires lot of purchase in good faith from Advaita. The Maya concept is not fully explained in Advaita beyond doubt by Shri Adisankara Bhagavatpada; those who tried to analyse this Maya, made Advaita propounded by Shri Adisankara Bhagavatpada more confusing than the Philosophy.Originally Posted by satay
To put it short, Evil has no source as there is no such thing as Evil. Evil is darkness, is nothing but absense of Light. If one tries to name this absense of Light as ignorance, then one must realise that such naming is only for identification and not to define the object as such. Like why I being called
Ramkish, just for the name being lingering on, one cannot expect me to be like Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, as name is just an identification and not made for defining.
This evil darkness is spelled on Atma not by Maya even if Advaitin view is accepted as Maya is nothing but God himself. If so, Maya being part of Lord, should have a quality of being Krura (Cruel) thus negating the idea of Nirguna Brahman. On the contrary, the evil darkness is spelled by the absense of Light illuminated by Atma by multiple veils of Karma. As the light passes through many shields, its illuminating impact gets reduced, as a result is unable to illuminate the right object, thus making us blind, irrespective of the fact that we have vision.
Now, setting aside all sectarian views, one must either have torch called Dharma to navigate through in the absense of light or should have a yogic vision to see through the feeble light / darkness.
Easy choice is opting Bhakti and Guru. Guru helps us to remove the veils and makes the Atma illuminate. Bhakti helps us to leave it lord and lord guides us through experience
Hence, source of so called Evil is the blinding darkness spread by Veils of Karma obstructing the illumination spread by Atma. There seems to be no separate source of evil / darkness.
If we recognise evil as object existing then source must be ascribed to none other than god, for he is source of all. However, we deny such separate existence, hence source cannot be ascribed to Lord directly. This arises a question, whether can we ascribe it to Lord indirectly?, then the answer is Yes, Indirectly, Lord is source of Karma and Karmic Veil, hence so.
Ego, is part of prakriti in the form of Aham-kara and mama(मम)-kara. This ego is part of creation. Advaitin view this creation as Maya, hence, accepting advaitin view will make your stand point correct. Maya is source of Ego. On the contrary, Vaishnavite view this creation not as a part illusion but as a part of wonderful power of lord that exist begininglessly and endlessly. These two karaka along with triguna result in physical body which is pervaded by Atma, which in turn is pervaded by Lord. As this is part of creation, rejecting ego in toto is very difficult and requires almost equal courage to commit suicide to reject it. Few tastes success but this success is checked and challenged again and again as long as they live in this earth. This Ego in such divine entity transforms as Vairagya. As these two karaka become powerful in combination of triguna; divine entity who are out of purview of this ego, remove the Tamas and Rajo gunanubhava to reject this Ego. In the absense of Tamas and Rajas, Sattva predominantly checks these two karaka, identifying Aham and mama sabda with Lord and not with the Atma. So the so called Ego dissiminates and transforms as Vairagya
Hope I had attempted all your questions but in different order, as time for the day is over, will try to answer any further doubts tomorrow, if such doubts falls within the iota of my knowledge scope
Jai shree krishna
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