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72
AYĀRO
ANNOTATION 147: This aphorism can be interpreted in three different ways:
1) The intrinsic aspect of a substance is subtle, while the external one is gross. It is easy to comprehend the latter, but difficult to comprehend the former. One who can comprehend the former can distinctly comprehend the latter also. One who has comprehended the latter is able to know the former only through the medium of the gross. The soul is an inner-reality. Its conscious form cannot be distinctly comprehended. But its functions, manifested through the body, are gross and external. It follows from this that a body, devoid of consciousness cannot perform functions of consciousness. The functions of consciousness are the functions performed by the conscient reality (soul).
2) A person directly experiences pain and pleasure and as such they are immediate and self-perceptible. On the basis of the self-experience we can understand the pains and pleasures of others. Therefore, the feeling of pains and pleasures of others is an indirect one. The way in which we are affected by any external cause is the same in which others are affected and the way in which the others are affected by external causes is the same as the way in which we ourselves are affected.
3) Knowledge like the sun is self-luminary. Just as the sun is self-luminary and illuminates other objects, knowledge is self-luminary and enlightens other substances. The function of knowledge is to know the knowable. Knowledge is self-luminary and therefore reveals the spiritual substance-it reveals the self. It enlightens others and therefore it reveals the external world i. e. it reveals the whole gamut of knowable objects, distinct from the Self. But the knowledge that reveals the external world and internal world is one and the same. That is why, the author has laid down
One who knows the inner-self knows the external (world)
as well; One who knows the external (world) knows the inner-self as well.
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