Vivek Chudamani

SR No.: 007022
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 552
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 245

VIVEKACUDAMAŅI
197
When the mind reappears and grows into functioning, everything acquires growth (i.e., as one gradually regains full consciousness after dreamless sleep, the world grows into one's consciousness).
hi in the first line indicates conclusiveness: niścitam. hi in the second line means yatah: because.
vinaste: viseşena nirvāsanam naște: when it is lost (stilled) with no vāsanās or residual tendencies.
172
The same is explained more fully: स्वप्नेऽर्थशून्ये सजति स्वशक्त्या भोक्त्रादि विश्वं मन एव सर्वम् । तथैव जाग्रत्यपि नो विशेषः तत्सर्वमेतन्मनसो विज़म्भणम् ॥ १७२ ॥ svapne’rthaśūnye syjati svašaktyā
bhoktrādi viśvam mana eva sarvam! tathaiva jāgratyapi no višeşaḥ
tat sarvametan manaso vijrmbhanam 11
In the absence of external objects in the dream, the mind alone creates everything, i.e., the enjoyer etc., by its power. So, too, there is no difference in the waking state. All that is only an expansion of the mind.
It is first dealt with by the amvaya method. The śruti teaches that the activity of the mind in the absence of (external) objects is the dream state. At that time, in the minute tubular fibres of the body more slender even than a hair, mountains, rivers, oceans etc., are 'seen.' This is not possible as such, as the sense-organs like the eye are not functioning. Hence the mind cannot go out through them. So the objects existing outside the body cannot be perceived. But, they appear to have their locus outside due to the vāsanās (residual tendencies) persisting in the mind. Really, they do not exist as such. Hence the expression arthaśünye: in the absence of (material) objects. In dream state of such kind, the mind creates by its own power, i.e., by the reflection in itself by its tendencies, all the objects of the world of (dream) experience.
The question may be raised: If the jīva is the experiencer, how can it also be the experienced object? In the absence of experienced object, there can be no enjoyer. The mind is the cause of the creation of experienced objects; it implies the experiencer, and it must be taken that it creates the experiencer; for, the experiencer and the experienced objects are correlatives. When there is no