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VIVEKACŪDĀMAŅI
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cancelled.25 This will be known clearly by the sloka 145 to come later. In the world too, the deleterious effects of viksepaśakti will be seen only in respect of an object about which there is doubt or wrong knowledge. Where a person's knowledge about a thing is clear and certain, there is never any viksepa for him. Hence, it is said that the tamoguņa-sakti envelopes the nature of an object and makes it appear otherwise. By producing such viksepa, distortion, it becomes the cause of bondage.
nidānam: ādi kāranam: the original cause.
116 While these two (rajas and tamas) are cause of bondage, the superior power of tamas is conveyed by this śloka.
प्रज्ञावानपि पण्डितोऽपि चतुरोऽप्यत्यन्तसूक्ष्मार्थदृग
व्यालोढस्तमसा न वेत्ति बहुधा संबोधितोऽपि स्फुटम् । भ्रान्त्यारोपितमेव साधु कलयत्यालम्बते तद्गुणान्
हन्तासौ प्रबला दुरन्ततमसः शक्तिर्महत्यावृतिः ॥११६ ॥ prajñāvānapi pandito'pi caturo'pyatyantasūksmārthadrg
vyālīdhastamasā na vetti bahudhā sambodhito'pi sphutami bhrāntyāropitameva sādhu kalayatyālambate tadguṇān
hantāsau prabalā durantatamasaḥ śaktir mahatyāvrtiḥ 11
Even a man of wisdom. one learned in the śāstras, though he be clever even possessing the capacity of the most subtle discrimination does not realise the nature of the ātman though repeatedly and clearly taught if he is overpowered by tamas. He considers what is superimposed by his delusion as true and attaches himself to its qualities. Alas, the concealing power of tamas which makes for untold hardships is great indeed.
prajñāvān: prajñā traikālikī matā: prajñā is understood as referring to all the three periods of time. So, prajñāvān means one who has definitive (unshakable) intelligence in all the three periods of time.
paņditaḥ: the wisdom arising from study of śāstras is paņņā. He who has this pandā is a pandita.
25 The idea is: The jñānins see the world in its multitudinous form as a result of the viksepa sakti acting on them due to the effect of their sarskāras of past lives. But they are not deceived by them. For, even while they see the world, they maintain their realisation of the substratum (adhisthāna) of the world objects, namely Brahman whose avarana (concealment) has been cancelled by the jñāna. They see multiplicity, but they are not deceived by it,
