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SAMAYASARA
preparatory method of his adopting the Niścaya or the Paramarthic point of view. According to him all persons are not capable of understanding the real nature of the ultimate Self. Therefore the information must be conveyed according to the capacity of the student; just as it is necessary to adopt as a means of communication the language with which the student is acquainted so also it is necessary to adopt a method of instruction which will be within the reach of the individual student. When a guru teaches an individual not acquainted with Samskṛta language through the medium of Samskṛta it would not be intelligible to the person concerned and the instructor would defeat his purpose. Hence it is absolutely necessary to speak to him in the language which is his mother tongue and which may be some vernacular other than Samskṛta. Similarly it is necessary to adopt vyavaḥāric point of view in communicating metaphysical truths to ordinary people. With this justification Śrī Kundakundà examines every problem from these two points of view, practical and real, the practical point of view in dealing with problems of an empirical life and the real point of view in dealing with supreme reality transcending limitations of the empirical life. In this respect as was pointed above. Śankara closely follows Kundak unda's methods, with obviously he was familiar when he began his Bhǎşya.
which
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THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE SAMSARA
Both Sankara and Kundakunda adopt identically the same attitude as to the nature of the individual self. Both maintain that the individual
soul is identical with the ultimate reality, the Supreme Self, Sankara following the traditional language of Jaina metaphysics calls this ultimate reality Paramātman, or the Supreme Self. I ven according to Sankara the Brahma and Paramatma are synonymous and interchangeable. Both the thinkers maintain that the individual self in the concrete world is ultimately identical with this absolute reality or Paramātmā. The nature of the individual self in concrete experience is the result of limitations imposed upon the ultimate reality, Paramātmā. The limiting conditions are very often spoken of as Upadhi, which is responsible for clouding the true nature of the ultimate reality. Kundakunda compares the ultimate reality with the shining sun in all his brilliance and the individual self is compared to the sun hidden by a dense layer of clouds which hides the sunshine. According to the variation in the density of the cloud, the rays of the sun will permeate through the clouds and make the sun visible in varying intensity. These variations in the appearance of the sun correspond to the various stages of spiritual developments of the individual soul. When the clouds completely get dispersed the sun begins to shine in all his glory without any intervening interruption. Exactly in a similar manner, Karmic upadhis of different density obstruct the self-shining Supreme. Atman where the Self will shine in his pristine
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