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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
79
ment of the true, and vikṣepa: projection of the false. For a person thus bitten (deluded), Brahmajñāna alone is the medicine. Of what use are the Vedas like the Řk and the śāstras like Vyākar (grammar)? Of what avail are mantras chanted even seven crores of times? Nor can medicines like the sañjīvini help. Because none of them can help the man stricken by the serpent of ajñāna to get rid of the delusion wrought by ajñāna.
64
That mere sound cannot be the means to mokṣa is shown by an example.
न गच्छति विना पानं व्याधिरौषधशब्दतः। विनाऽपरोक्षानुभवं ब्रह्मशब्दैन मुच्यते ॥ ६४ ॥ na gacchati vinā pānar vyādhirauşadhaśabdataḥ i vinā'parokşānubhavam brahmaśabdair na mucyate 11
If a person merely repeats the name of a medicine without drinking it, he is not cured of his disease. So too a person is not released by merely uttering the word Brahman without direct realisation of it. aparokşõnubhava: the direct experience of the ātman.
brahmaśabdaih means by the mere words relating to Brahman contained in the Upanişads.
65
The same idea is expressed differently through the statement of the supreme means to the realisational knowledge of the Truth.
अकृत्वा दृश्यविलयम् अज्ञात्वा तत्त्वमात्मनः । बाह्यशब्दैः कुतो मुक्तिरुक्तिमात्रफलैनृणाम् ॥ ६५ ॥ akrtvā dṛśyavilayam ajñātvā tattvamātmanaḥ 1 bāhyaśabdaiḥ kuto muktiruktimātraphalairnrnām 11
How can mokşa arise merely by repetition of words without effecting the dissolution of whatever is drśya* and without knowing the truth of the ātman?
drśya is what is cognisable either through the senses of perception or through the mind. It excludes what is not cognisable, the self. The absolute asat like the horns of a hare is not cognis
• Explained in the commentary.
