Self Knowledge gives liberation (verses 194-206)

 

 

 

 

Self Knowledge gives liberation (verses 194-206) :
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194. The respected teacher replied—O learned one, you have asked a proper question. Listen then carefully. Things conjured up by imagination, which is itself a product of delusion can never be accepted as "facts."

195. For the Self which is unattached, actionless and formless, there can be no connection with the objects of the world other than through delusion, just like the blueness etc. seen in the sky has no connection with the sky.

196. The embodied state (jeeva-hood) of the Self which is the Witness, which is beyond all qualities and activities, and which is experienced within as Knowledge and Bliss Absolute, is unreal, and is but a delusion caused by the mind. Since by nature it (jeeva-hood) is unreal, it ceases to exist once the delusion has been dispelled.

197. Having been caused by an error of judgment and false understanding, this embodied state (jeeva-hood) can exist only as long as the delusion lasts. The rope is mistaken to be the snake only when there is an illusion. Once the illusion is destroyed, there can be no more snake. So too, in this case.

198. So too, ignorance (avidya) and its effects are said to be beginningless. But when there is rise of Knowledge (vidya), then the ignorance, even though it is beginningless, is destroyed, root and branch.

199. Just as dreams vanish on waking up, even so the phenomenal universe is not eternal, it is evident, like the ―prior non-existence‖(prak-abhava).

200.  Although it is beginningless, ―prior non-existence‖ is observed to have an end. So too, the embodied state which is imagined in the Self, through its apparent association with the limiting adjuncts (like the intellect) is not real.

201. But the other, the Self, is intrinsically different from the embodied state (jeeva-hood). The connection between the Self and the intellect is due to the "false knowledge."

202. The false knowelge will cease to function at the dawn of right knowledge and in no other way. According to the scriptures, realization of the identity of the Self (Atman) with the Absolute (Brahman) is right knowledge.

203. This realization comes only through right discrimination made between the Self and the not-Self. That is why one must strive to discriminate between the inmost Self and the non-real self.

204. Water which is extremely muddy appears as transparent water when the mud has been removed. So too, the Self shines clearly when the impurities have been removed.

205. This inmost Self is clearly realized as the Eternal Self when the unreal ceases to exist. So one must strive to completely remove the unreal self, starting with ego etc., from the Eternal Self.

206. For the following reasons, the intellectual sheath which we have so far spoken of, cannot be supreme Self: It is subject to change, it is inert and insentient, it is limited, it is an object of peception and it is not constant. The non-eternal, indeed, cannot be considered to be the eternal.