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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
75
some such thing which he is wearing. Thinking that it has been lost, he searches everywhere for the to-him-los ornament. A friend looking at him says: 'It is there round your neck'. He feels that he 'got it back'. By his ignorance, he thought that he lost it. It has always been round his neck. His 'getting it back' is really his recognition of the fact of its ever having been round his neck. (2) Karna was Kunti's son. But from his childhood he was brought up by Rādhā. So, he thought he was Rādheya; he did not know he was Kaunteya. But when later Kunti told him that he was really her son, he realised he was Kaunteya. He did not acquire the nature of being Kunti's son (Kaunteyatva) afresh; he was Kaunteya always, previously as now. What was not known previously is now known by Kunti's words. (3) In the Rāmāyana, before the assembled gods who praised Him after the killing of Rāvana and Sita's fire-ordeai, Śri Rāma disclaimed that He was divine as the gods proclaimed Him and said that He thought of himself only as a mere man: ātmānam mānuşam manye. But, when He was told by the gods: You are the Ekaśộnga Varāha, you are Mahāvişnu. He remembered His true nature. It is not that a non-existent Mahāvişnutva was acquired by Him; but what was previously a fact revealed to Him by the words of the gods. It must be understood similarly in this context also.
Karma (action) has one of four kinds of effects: (a) It is utpādyam: the production of something in a form which did not exist previously. (b) It is āpyam: It refers to something new or elsewhere which has to be attained. (c) It is saīskāryam: It relates to the purification or sanctification of what is impure or unsacred. (d) It is vikāryam: effective of change of form. The examples for these respectively are: (a) the generation of union with svarga by performance of yajñas, (b) the attaining of skill of Vedic recitation which is a combination of several sound-forms, (c) the sanctification of a thing by scattering purified grains on it, and (d) the removal of the shell from the grains by crushing or grinding them. The ātman is ever-existing, nitya. So there is no question of its being produced anew. A person is Brahman already; so there can be no talk of attaining it as a new state. It is nityasuddha brahmasvarūpa; it is of the nature of the eternal, pure Brahman. So it does not stand in need of purification or sanctification. It is unchanging; so it cannot be altered in its constitution. All this has been elaborated by Sri Bhagavatpāda in his commentary on the Samanvayādhikaraņa of the Sūtra Bhāşya. So, it is clear that the ātman cannot be realised by karma which has for its effect production etc. In the
