Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 57

INTRODUCTION
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Its nature is described thus. "That which is invisible, unseizable, without family or caste, that which has no eyes, mor ears, no hands, nor feet, the Eternal, the omnipresent, Infinitesimal and imperishable. That it is which the wise regard as the source of knowledge. As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grown on earth, as the hairs of the head shoot forth from every person, thus does everything arise from the imperishable." These two verses clearly illustrate the spiritual nature of Brahman and he is the root principle of all existence. Knowledge of this is claimed to be
edge par excellence. What is the value of the lower knowledge of the traditional religion of the sacrificial Mantras and the skill in arranging sacrifices, but frail in truth are those boats (the sacrifices ). Fools are they that praise this as the highest for they are subjected again and again to old age and death. Fools who hold this Vedic scholarship or rituals wise in their own conceit and puffed up with vain knowledge go round and round staggering to and fro like blind men led by the blind. If at all it is of any use to a person who offers sacrifice, it will lead him to Svarga which is merely a kind of lower happiness since that state of existence is also included in the Sarpsāric cycle. How is the higher knowledge to be obtained ? "By truthfulness, by penance, right knowledge and abstinence must that Self be gained.” The Self whom spotless anchorites gain is pure, and like a light within the body. Further the Upanişad emphasises that that Atman cannot be gained by the Veda nor by understanding nor by much learning nor is that Self to be gained by one who is destitute of strength or without earnestness or without right meditation. Having wellascertained the object of the knowledge of the Vedānta, having purified their nature by Yoga or renunciation, all anchorites enjoying the highest immortality become free at the time of the great end in the worlds of Brahma. This imperishable Brahman is the soul and the goal of all beings. He is the supreme person who is the source of human personality as well as the cosmic universe. He is in short the source of the world and the individual. Because of him the senses are active, all doubts are cut off and one's Karmas cease when He is seen. The highest golden sheaf is Brahman without stain, without parts. The sun shines not there nor the moon and the stars. There lightnings shine not, much less this fire; when He shines then everything shines after him. This whole world is illumined with His light. That immortal Brahman is before, is behind, is right and left, is below and above. Brahman indeed is this whole world; it is indeed the excellent. Not by sight is it graphed, not even by speech nor by another sense-organ, austerity or work. By the light of the knowledge of one's nature becomes purified in that way, by medicating one does not behold Him who is without parts. The cause of rebirth and Samsāra is said to be