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Jnanadeva and the Warkari Movement/Prof. Dr. Fred Dallmayr
Note 15
..."How can ignorance that pales before inquiring thought, get eye-sight and see itself in the form of the visible world in front of it?"
Amritanubhava, VII, 281. As one should note, the "refutation of ajnanavada" in chapter VII
is followed in chapter VIII by a "refutation of (epistemic) knowledge." Bahirat is perceptive in pinpointing the distinctness of Jnanadeva's "metaphysics" – though he tends to link
Shankara (perhaps too quickly) with essentialism. As he writes. "Jnanadeva's view of God and Goddess, as expressed in his Amritanubhava, is quite distinct from the Samkhya view
ofpur usha and prakriti or the Vedantic of brahman and maya.... Samkhya has the drawback of assuming two eternal principles, and of regarding matter as evolving out of
itself... The Vedantic view is also marred by the assumption of avidya which seems to overpower even brahman, the ultimate reality." Regarding Vedanta he adds that
Jnanadeva "refuted the doctrine of ajnana(vada) which is identical with maya of Shankara; he has clearly declared that the entity which is called maya by Vedantins is nothing but
ignorance." At a later point in his book, Bahirat discusses in detail the differences between Jnanadeva and Shankara (some of which seem more plausible or valid than others). Still,
he admits that "Jnanadeva had great reverence for Shankara. In his Jnaneshvari he says that he is merely following the footsteps of the great bhashvakar (i. e. commentator)."
See The Philosophy of Jnanadeva, pp. 46-47, 54, 108-110.
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