________________
80
VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
able as it does not exist at all. Brahman is not cognisable as it is not the object of cognition. Vide yato vāco nivartante aprāpya: manasā saha, 'that from which speech returns along with the mind without cognising it. The word drśya excludes these two. When Sri Bhagavatpāda speaks of drśyavilayam, reference is to the negation of the prapañca excluding Brahman and śaśaśrnga. Hence, without having brought about the negation of everything beginning with the inert body and ending with ajñāna which are all other than Brahman, and without understanding the truth of the ātman which is devoid of all differences of like or unlike kinds or of internal differences, and is self-luminous and blissful, by the mere repetition of the word Brahman like 'I am Brahman', without inner experience, mokşa of men cannot be secured.
kutaḥ: kutah sambhavati: whence does it arise? i.e., it does not arise at all. (kim) kutah indicates negation.
66
Thus, by adopting the negative method, it is conveyed that the final means (to mokşa) is the residual ātmatattva-jñāna preceded by the liquidation of everything which is dịśyam. When the dṛśyam is liquidated, ipso facto ātmatattva-jñāna arises, not otherwise.
The means to mukti has been defined negatively, i.e., by reference to what will not effect it. An appropriate example is given for it.
अकृत्वा शत्रुसंहारम् अगत्वाऽखिलभूश्रियम् ।
राजाऽहमिति शब्दान्नो राजा भवितुमर्हति ॥ ६६ ॥ akrtvā satrusamhāram agatvākhilabhūśriyam rājāhamiti sabdānno rājā bhavitumarhati 11
A person cannot become a king merely by saying 'I am king' if he has not killed his enemies and if he has not acquired the wealth of the whole earth.
One does not deserve to be a king merely by saying 'I am king' if one has not liquidated the enemies who are obstructions to one's enjoyment of sovereignty and if one has not acquired lordship over the entire world. As in the matter of kingship conquest of one's enemies is necessary, so too in relation to moksa all sense of reality of seen objects must disappear. Similarly acquisition of ātmatattvajñāna, the knowledge (realisation of the truth about the ātman
