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MAY, 1876.]
ATMA BODHA PRAKASIKA.
ATMA BODHA PRAKASIKA,
BY REV. J. F. KEARNS, MISSIONARY, S.P.G., TANJORE. Introduction.
THE Divine Sankara Acharya, a graTHE cious teacher, desirous of imparting instruction, has composed the following work for the better confirmation and security of the excellent scholar of the three classes of Vedanta works; and also for the benefit of those who are unable to study those works for themselves-i.e. the unlearned. This work, entitled Soul-knowledge, contains the sum total of the Vedanta system.
ATMA BODHA PRAKASIKA.
1. This Soul-knowledge is set forth as something worthy the consideration of (1) those whose sins have been expiated by austerities, (2) of those who are tranquil, (3) of those who are free from desire, and (4) of those who long for liberation.
2. Amongst the other means, knowledget is manifestly the only means to intuitive liberation.
1. The commentator finds in this strophe the four sddanas, or preliminary means of salvation.
2. The commentator remarks: "The four preliminary means are related to the attainment of beatitude in the same manner as fuel is to the cooking of food; whilst knowledge resembles fire, which is absolutely necessary thereto.
3. Ignorance is the product of former works, and it seeks removal through new works; therefore works are not inimical to it: but as mud cannot be washed away with mud, so no one can by works blot out work-ignorance.
4. The sun is separated from the clouds by an immense distance, and is immeasurably larger than the clouds, yet the clouds appear to envelope
A few years ago I translated this treatise and published it for private circulation. Perhaps it may be of more service to give it a wider and more extensive publication, and with this object I consign it to the Indian Antiquary.
Commentary.
† According to the Vedanta philosophy nothing existe but Brahma: consequently there is no object of knowledge, and hence the knowledge mentioned in the strophe is not the knowledge of a thing or things, for this would imply a contradiction to the dogma that nothing exists except knowledge. This knowledge is attained by detaching the thoughts from outward objects, attending the teacher's instruction, and meditating on the great saying "Hoe tu es"-thou art that (i.e. Brahma). Next, the qualified student perceives that the duality is an illusion, that all the objects in the universe are all Brahma, that he is himself Brahma. Getting beyond this, he ceases to assert even that as a separate thought: subject, object, all disappear; his knowledge is perfect-there is then left nothing but the One, who is knowledge and bliss. It is two-fold-(i.)
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Without knowledge, resembling fire for cooking, liberation cannot be accomplished.
3. Works are not inimical to ignorance, therefore they cannot remove ignorance. Knowledge, however, overcomes ignorance, as sunlight darkness.
4. By ignorance the soul is ruined, but when this cause succumbs, the soul shall, of itself, shine forth as the sole one (i. e. as Universal Brahma)--like the sun when the clouds disappear.
5. After that knowledge has, by means of the exercise of knowledge, purified Jiva which was depressed by ignorance, it itself (even that knowledge) succumbs: just as the powder of the Strychnos potatorum acts upon water,-first purifies it, and then with the impurities commingles itself.
6. The world is like the creation of a dream; troubled by inclination, aversion, &c. &c., so
it. It is, however, only, in appearance that they do so: Vritti-jndna (the discursive and therefore imperfect knowledge which is brought about by the power of the mental faculties) is the cause of the soul-divided among many bodies-appearing as a manifold thing, and not as a single thing, i.e. Advaita.
5. The plant here named is in Tamil called Tetthamaram, and the seed of it Tettham Kottai; the botanical name is that given in the translation. In Taylor's translation as rendered into French by Pauthier, it is called Ketaka (Pandanus odoratissimus).
6. The Tamil commentary on Sapta Prakarana mentions eleven other passions into which the two
transcendent, inevident; (ii.) aon-transcendent, evident.Vide Ballantyne and Mullens.
"Karman, work, ceremony is threefold' :-(i.) the demerit formerly collected by works, (ii.) the consequences of former works still being enjoyed or suffered, (iii.) future works."-Gruul.
"Works, instead of being inimical to sinful ignorance, rather benefit it."-Kaivaljanavanita, Pt. II. 70.
Ignorance, according to this philosophy, is a something not positively real and not positively unreal, something in the shape of an entity, the opponent of "knowledge," corresponding with Plato's ov kan ov as distinguished from the ovros ov. It has two powers,-that by which it envelops soul, giving rise to the conceit of personality or individuality: and that by which it projects the phantasmagoria of a world which the individual regards as external to himself.-See Ballantyne and Mullens.
Jiva is "life," the individual soul-the reflex of the Universal Spirit in the single individual.
