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को नाम बन्धः कथमेष आगतः
कथं प्रतिष्ठास्य कथं विमोक्षः। कोऽसावनात्मा परमः क आत्मा
pillaarim: AASTAH 1188 11 ko nāma bandha kathameșa āgatah
katham pratistāsya katham vimoksah kosāvanātma paramah ka ātma
tayor vivekah kathametaducyatām 49.
को नाम - What is this, बन्धः - bondage, कथम् - how, एवः - this, आगतः - has come into being, कथम् - how is,, प्रतिष्टा - the stay, अस्य • of this, T - how is, aire: - liberation, $i - what is, TÆT - that, अनात्मा - non-self, परमः - the supreme,, आत्मा - the Salf, कः - what, तयोः - of these two, विवेकः - discrimination, कथम् - how, एतत् - this, 5THAT! - may be explained,
What is bondage? How has it come? How does it continue to stay? How can one get out of it completely? What is the Non-Self? Who is the Supreme Self? And what is the process of discrimination between these two (Atma and Anatma)?—Please explain all these to me. .
Herein, we have a series of seven questions which the student had put to the teacher in Vivekachudāmani. The teacher will take up these questions now, one by one, and answer them exhaustively.
These set of questions almost exhaust the entire field of ignorance and the ignorance-created confusions. Therefore, they are not to be treated as a particular set of questions asked by some individual; they are the general questions that would be asked by a type of seekers who are intellectually curious to know, to understand, to evalute and to explain the confusing world of endless plurality. Thus, these questions give us an inkling of the type of questions we should put, or the spirit which we must adopt to open our discussions as we approach a divine master.