Samayasara OR Nature of Self

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 73

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SAMAYASARA
answers. Yagnavalkya makes out that the soul is transcending all notions of humanity and devoid of all sense qualities. "Thou shalt not see the seer nor hear the hearer. That is the self that is within all. It is above the heavens beneath the Earth, and embracing past, present and future. Whosoever not knowing the indestructible offers oblations and performs penances even for one thousand years is a miserable slave whereas he who knows the self as imperishable is real Brahman. This indeed is the truc form free from evil. This is filled with bliss and is free from sorrows. Yagnavalkya explains the different stages of consciousness a doctrine which becomes more prominent in later metaphysics The first stage is waking consciousness. The second is sleep where we have dream consciousness Third is the dreamless stage of deep sleep, and the fourth the stage beyond which we reach the inmost self. According to Yagnavalkya the true nature is identical with the fourth or the Turiya state. This may be spoken of as the "Ego in itself." Self which is distinctly metempirical and transcendent.
The next scene is where we see Yagnavalkya again in the court of Janaka of Videha who asked Yagnavalkya the purpose of his visit whether it is for philosophical disputation or for 1ich presents. Yagnavalkya is shrewd enough to answer that his aim is both. Then begins the discussion. Janaka is asked to expound all that he learned about the doctrine of Brahman. The king narrates the different doctrines of Brahman which he learnt from various scholars. He tries to identify Brahman with sight, speech, hearing, mind etc. All these doctrines are recognised by Yagnavalkya to be only partially true. He completes the teaching by supplementing Janaka's doctrine of the self.
According to Yagnavalkya the atman is the condition of the operation of the different senses as well as manas. As conditioned by atman, these sense activities may revcal in their own way the nature of the underlying Brahman. But to identify consciousness or any one of the senses with Brahman would be unjustifiable and erroneous. The soul is what subserves these functions though it is not identical with any one of these. Its true nature lies far beyond the strata of consciousness. We should