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VIVEKACŪDAMANI
हितसुजन गुरुक्त्या गच्छतः स्वस्य युक्त्या प्रभवति फलसिद्धिः सत्यमित्येव विद्धि ।। ८३ ॥
viṣamaviṣayamarge gacchato'nacchabuddheḥ pratipadamabhighāto mṛtyurapyeṣa siddhaḥ hitasujanaguruktyā gaccataḥ svasya yuktyā prabhavati phalasiddhiḥ satyamityeva viddhi ||
Know that obstacle and death haunt at every step a man of impure mind who travels on the road of sensepleasure beset with the dangers and difficulties. But, he who leads his life by the advice of well-meaning friends and of the guru and by his own reasoning, attains the fruition of his purpose. Know this to be the truth.
vişama: fraught with various distractions of the mind; making for infinite sorrow.
viṣayamärge: The road of the sense-objects. vide viṣayāmsteṣu gocaran in the Kathopaniṣad.
anaccha buddheḥ: Of one whose mind is impure. For, if the mind is pure and accustomed to proper reasoning, it will withdraw from sense-objects. As it is enveloped by rajas and tamas, it becomes incapable of reasoning. In accord with the saying: As a frog in the mouth of a snake looks out for something to eat, so does a man caught in the coils of death seek impermanent sense-pleasures. The man without discrimination becomes addicted to these. pleasures. A man of such impure mind has to confront sorrow at every step.
mrtyuḥ: death is samsara which makes for death. (and birth again). siddhaḥ: esatblished by experience. It has already been explained that the mind alone is the cause of bondage and release of men; attachment to pleasures causes bondage; liberation comes from non-attachment to them. The Bhagavad Gitā also says: "When men think of sense-objects, association with them arises in their minds. From such association arises desire for them. From desire arises anger. Anger begets delusion and delusion produces loss of memory. By loss of memory, the intellect is destroyed and by it the man himself is destroyed".
The word for destruction here is 'pranaśyati'. The word comes from the root naś which means 'not seeing' "nasa adarśane". So, not realising (not directly seeing one's own real ātman) is itself praṇāśa. That is death.
