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The Goal is in realising that in our true nature, the Self in us is the same as the Self in everything and in every being.. This realisation of the divine nature of man, individually experienced, each for himself, is the only method by which we can get liberated from our bondage-our intellectual restlessness, our mental agitations and our physical cravings.
In order to avoid any possible doubt in the mind of the student that there may be, perhaps, some method other than Yoga, Sānkhya etc. which has not been described by the teacher, Sankara says point-blank here, "and by no other means". To realise the Self is the only method, and there is no other means by which our present experiences of finitude and limitations can all be destroyed root and branch.
वीणाया रूपसौन्दर्य तन्त्रीवादनसौष्ठवम् ।
प्रजारञ्जनमात्त्रं तन्न सांराज्याय कल्पते ॥ ५७॥ vināyā rūpasoundaryam tantrivādanasoustavam prajāranjana mātram tanna sämrājyāya kalpate 57.
वीणाया - of the Vina, रूपसौन्दर्य - the beautiful form, तन्त्रीवादन#1997 - the proficiencies of one in playing on its chords, प्रजारजनमात्रम् - to please an audience only, तत् - that, न - not साम्राज्याय - for sovereignity, कल्पते - makes competent.
The beauty of the Veena and the proficiency of one in playing on its chords serve but to please the audience; they do not, in themselves, ever prove sufficient to confer full sovereignty upon him.
In using analogies, nobody has yet come to the field of philosophy, who can beat Sankara's efficiency and perfection. According to him, the schools of philosophy that argue nicely, that describe beautifully, and that enunciate exhaustively, discussions that give clear intellectual pictures of the why and the wherefore of this Universe, are all nothing but the beauty of the instrument or the efficiency of one who plays on it. A player on an instrument with his proficiency may, during one afternoon, entertain the largest conceivable audience, and for the time being, the listeners
