Traverses on Less Trodden Path of Indian Philosophy and Religion

Author(s): Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 158

Tripură Tantra...
149
all relational basis of knowing and knowledge. She is pure consciousness. She is indeed the turiya, beyond the word and thought, inaccessible and of un-paralled grandeur. 44 She is un-knowable, infinite, ungraspable, un-born and non-dual. She is unknowable because even gods do not know her nature. She has no limit, and she is thus known as infinite. She is ungraspable, and she is thus known as imperceptible, no one knows her origin thus known as un-born. She alone resides everywhere, thus known as non-dual. She is consciousness all compact. She is indescribable. 45 She cannot be described because she is unlimited. In describing her we are making infpite as finite. Infinite cannot be limited. She is beyond speech, touch and tongue. Even gods cannot grasp her nature. 46 She cannot be defined in term of any categories for there is nothing besides Her. Nature of Tripura is similar to 'not this', 'not this, of the Upan şads. She is ordinarily in-expressible, So, the best way of describing this unpredicable and incomprehensible Reality is via negative or through negatives by calling it, infinite, immutable, indivisible and inexhaustible.41 Positive expression is in a sepse a limitation, for it implies the duality of the experiencer and the experienced, the denotive and denoted. The negative concept denies the possibility of such knowledge with regard to Supreme Brahman. It is beyond, quite beyond the grasp of human faculty or psychic apparatus. This Reality (Tripurā) is devoid of the distinction of knowledge, known and knower. 48 She is the highest Universal. When the highest Universal is known, all the particulars included in it are known. She is ur-pointable all pervading, pure consciousness. 4 9 She cannot be understood by scriptural study, 80 She is ore undivided bliss and self of all. She is supporting ground of all.51 Even though, inner controller of all, she is unaffected by all blemishes, 82 like the sun who is unaffected by any blemishes,
44. Saundaryalahari-98. ed : Shastri Subrahmanya and Ayyangar Srinivas T. R.
Theosophical Publishing House Adyar, Madras -1977. 45. Lalita Trisati with śāji kara bhāsya, pp. 175, 180, 192. 46. Nityāsodasikarnava-1-9, p. 23. 47. Devyupanişad-p. 471. 48. Joanajimitrile yānămabhedabhavanam - Bhavanepuniya, p. 476. 49. Trisati-p. 175, 218. 50. Ibid-p. 180. 51. Sarvadhāra-Ibid, p. 218. 52. Sûryo yatha sarvalokasya cakṣuḥ nalipyate cākşuşairbāhyadoşaih. Ekastathā sarva.
bhūtāntarātmā na lipyate lokaduhkhena bahyaḥ-quoted by Sankara inb Trisatibhāsya, p. 219.