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VIVEKACŪDAMANI
यस्त्वयाद्य कृतः प्रश्नो वरीयान शास्त्रविन्मतः। सूत्रप्रायो निगूढार्थो ज्ञातव्यश्च मुमुक्षुभिः ॥ ६९ ॥ yastvayāya kştaḥ praśno varīyān śāstravinmatah | śūtraprāyo nigūdhārtho jñātavyaśca mumukşubhiḥ 11
The question that you have asked is excellent; it is approved by those who know śāstra. It is brief like a sūtra,
pregnant with meaning. The answer to it must be known .by the seekers of liberation.
The guru eulogises the sişya saying: You are a superior adhikārin not only by your possessing tīvra-mumuksā, but also by reason of your having condensed in your question what must be known by a mumuksu, without omission or overstatement. That shows you are intelligent, medhāvī, a scholar, vidvān, adept in the understanding of words in their proper context, ūhāpohavicakşanaḥ. You show the way to mumuksus in respect of what must be learnt. So praised by the guru, the sişya endowed with devotion and earnestness will quickly receive and comprehend what is taught to him. This is supported by the śruti (śvetāśvatara): yasya deve parā bhaktih, yathā deve tathā gurau / tasyaite kathitā hyarthāh prakāśante mahātmanaḥ: "He who is supremely devoted to God, and to his guru as to his God, to such a mahātmā, all that is imparted (by the guru) becomes effulgent”. Now, the question of the form: 'what is bondage etc.,' is excellent, varīyān; absolutely superior. Because it can be put only by those who are adepts in the śāstras.
sūtraprāyaḥ: Another reason stated is that the question is of the form of a sūtra. Everything that has to be asked in the matter of release from bondage has been abridged in the question in an aphoristic form in a minimum of words.
nigūdhārthah: The words are few; but everything that must be known is imbedded in it. That is why it is appropriate.
It is meant that the sisya has anticipated the whole of the current treatise which is the answer to this question,
Thus by the words ajñānayogāt etc., the guru conveys knowledge to be acquired by the mumuksus, of the moksa in the form of the destruction of the causes of bondage. This is to be achieved by realisation springing from discrimination between the ātman and the anātman. As the śișya questions the guru so comprehensively without omitting anything, the guru appreciated his intelligence and praised him greatly.
