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CHAPTER I
9
the reason why the founder of Christianity always emphasised that the Path leading to the Kingdom of God is extremely narrow and steep. It is this very same truth that is communicated to us by our author in this gâtha Instead of taking refuge in a cheap agnosticism that the Ultimate Reality is unknowable, he merely states that it is extremely difficult to apprehend. Then he promises that one who has the courage and conviction to plod along the steep and narrow path can, however, reach the Summit, the spiritual hilltop, and thus have a complete view of the sublime reality, a privilege not available to the ordinary mortals roaming about in the valley below
तं यत्तविभत्त दाएह अप्पणो सविहवेण ।
जदि दाज्ज पमाण चुक्किज्ज छल ण घेत्तव्व ॥ ५ ॥
Tam cyattavibhattam dâyeham appano savihavena
Jadi dâyejja pamânam chukkijja chhalam na ghettavvam (5) तमेकत्वविभक्त दर्शयेऽहमात्मन स्वविभवेन ।
यदि दर्शयेयं प्रमाण च्युतो भवामि छल न ग्रहीतव्यं ॥ ५ ॥
5
That Higher Unity differentiated from alien conditions, I will try to reveal as far as I can Accept it if it satisfies the conditions of Truth or Pramânas But if I fail in my description,
you may reject it.
COMMENTARY
It is a general belief among Indian thinkers that the metempirical Self or the Ego-in-itself is to be approached only through undergoing a special kind of spiritual discipline called yoga or tapas. This discipline opens up a new door-way to approach the Ultimate Reality which cannot be apprehended through ordinary sense perception Such a super-sensuous faculty of apprehending the Inner Self is the privilege of those few who by the practice of yoga successfully obtain it Such a supersensuous experience of metempirical Reality must have been obtained by our author through the practice of the spiritual discipline or yoga which is the necessary condition for such an acquisition. Otherwise he would not make bold to promise that he would reveal the nature of that Ultimate Reality-the Metempirical Self.
