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VICHAR MALA.
BOOK IV.
41
THE means of knowledge are now being set forth by the professor, for the benefit of his pupil in reply to his queries.
Says the pupil.
Now I know them well-the seven grounds,
But what are the means of knowing the Pure Brahma, and proofs ?
Lord! I have now come to know the seven grounds of knowledge thoroughly, and have no more any doubts or misgivings, but with kindness impart to me that instruction which will help the knowledge of the Pure, unassociated Brahma, (without the associates of collective totality, or distributive segregate) and what are the means? In other words, describe the demonstrator, who takes cognition of knowledge? and how can the supreme Self be ascertained by the six varieties of proofs? The pupil now speaks more clearly the cause of his inquiry in the following verse.
Bhagavan! As darkness is not destroyed anywhere, By speaking about a lamp and of its light; So without the rising of perfect knowledge, There can be no removal of Self in not-Self.
Lord! As a person sitting in a dark room, cannot have that darkness removed, simply by ordering a light to be brought, or even with a lamp filled with oil and supplied with a wick, but not lighted, so without the rising of perfect knowledge of Brahma, the mistakes and mis-apprehensions which are firmly seated in the mind of a person about Self for
VI
