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VIVEKACUDAMANI
Thus, it is the astika alone who believes in the distinctness of the atman and in the fact of liberation whereby the atman cuts itself off from involvement in bodily birth that is qualified to pursue the study of this sastra.
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(Some people maintain that the body itself is the atman. They are called dehātmavādins.) If it is true that the body is the ātman, the body being visible to the eyes, the atman too must be an object of sense-perception (pratyakṣa). Then how to reconcile this with the Upanisadic statement: ātmā vā are draṣṭavyaḥ śrotavyaḥ mantavyaḥ nididhyasitavyaḥ: "the atman should be seen, should be heard about, reflected on, should be repeatedly meditated upon"? What is the point in saying that a thing which is actually seen should be seen?
There is a sloka which says: subhairäpnoti devatvam nisiddhair nārakim tanum i ubhābhyām puṇyapāpābhyām mānuṣyam labhate'vaśaḥ "By good deeds one attains the state of a deva; as a result of doing prohibited actions, one obtains in spite of oneself a body designed to suffer the tortures of hell. By a mixture of good and bad deeds, one takes birth as a human being". This indicates that different kinds of body are secured by the same person through many lives by performing good or bad or mixed deeds. How otherwise can we account for the variety of joys and sorrows which are evidenced in the world? If it is said that, independent of one's actions, God creates certain individuals happy and others unhappy, then He will be guilty of partiality and cruelty. In that case, His divinity itself will be in peril. Hence, the following Brahma Sūtras are in point: vaiṣamyanairghṛnye na sāpekṣatvāt tatha hi darśayati; na karmāvibhāgāditi cenna anāditvat; upapadyate capyupalabhyate ca: "Inequality (of dispensation) and cruelty (the Lord can) not (be reproached with) on account of His regarding (merit and demerit), for, so (scripture) declares. If it be objected that it (viz., the Lord's having regard to merit and demerit) is impossible on account of the non-distinction (of merit and demerit previous to the first creation), we refute the objection on the ground of the world being without a beginning." "(The beginninglessness of the world) recommends itself to reason and is seen (from the scriptures)". These sūtras declare that God acts only in accordance with one's actions (in previous births) and that the flow of samsāra is beginningless. If a quality (dharma) is beginningless, then the bearer of that quality (the dharmin) too must be beginningless. If samsara which is the quality of a person is without a beginning (anadi), i.e., if no