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person who is desirous of obtaining presents from the king must first of all find out who the king is through the royal paraphernalia of the royal umbrella, chämara, etc Then he must have faith in the benevolent nature of the king, then he must approach him and serve him whole-heartedly in order to attain his end Similarly one who desires moksha or liberation should obtain the knowledge of the true Self, should have faith in the possibility of realisation and finally make an effort to reach the goal The approach towards the spiritual sovereign is compared to the approach towards a temporal king
Thus it is emphasised that right knowledge is the indispensable condition of the attempt to successfully achieve liberation or moksha
Next, the author points out that the view which identifies the Self with the body, etc is the mark of ajnana or wrong knowledge
कम्मे णोकम्मम्हि य अहमिदि अहय च कम्मणोकम्म । जा एसा खलु बुद्धी अप्पडिबुद्धो हवदि ताव ॥१९॥
Kamme nokammamhi ya ahamıdı ahayam cha kamma-nokammam Ja esa khalu buddhi appadibuddho havadi tāva
कर्मणि नोकर्मणि च अहमिति अहक च कर्म नोकर्म । यावदेषा खलु बुद्धिरप्रतिबुद्धो भवति तावत् ॥१९॥
19 Karmic matter and non-karmic body-matter constitute the I and (conversely) I am identical with karmic matter and non-karmic matter So long as this belief persists in the Self, it is said to be aprati-buddha, one lacking in discriminative knowledge
COMMENTARY
(19)
This gatha emphasises the fact that it is sheer ajñāna or ignorance to identify the Self with the various types of non-self Karma, here, refers to the subtle matter constituting the various kinds of karma, such as jñānävaraniya, etc, and therefore implies the various psychic states such as delusion, desire, etc Non-karma refers to the physical molecules constituting the organic body One who recognises that the Self is by nature entirely distinct from the internal impure psychic states such as delusion, desire,
