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VIVEKACŪDĀMAŅI
caturaḥ: ūhapohavicakṣaṇaḥ: one who is expert in positive and negative reasoning.
atyantasükşmārthadrk: one whɔ sees (understands) the subtlest meanings of words. This is the result of the preceding qualities. By having definitive knowledge, with the aid of śāstras and by skill in positive and negative reasoning, one is able to understand even the minutest of things.
Even such a person, when completely overpowered by tamas, cannot realise the atman. What can a man do in deep darkness even though he has keen eyes? He cannot know the ātman though well taught in many ways. Vide the śrutis: śrnvanto'pi bahavo yam na viduh: (Katha.) "Him, whom many cannot know even though they hear about Him"; nāyamatmā balahinena labhyah (Mund.): "This ātman cannot be realised by those who are devoid of strength"; na medhayā na bahunā śrutena (Katha.): "Not by intelligence or by much hearing”; āścaryavat paśyati kaścidenam (B. G.): “One sees this with wonder”, etc.
bhrāntyā: by misapprehension, by the superimposition on a thing of what is not that thing. He considers the gross body etc. which are superimposed as real. sādhu kalayati: abādhitam jānāti. He thinks that it is not negated, i.e., he thinks that the body itself is the ātman. He also imposes the body's qualities like adoration and disgrace, its strength and health etc., agency etc., and also the . qualities of the subtle body on the ātman. Alas! Is not this well known in experience that people do not get rid of their misapprehension though they are taught by śruti and the ācāryas that everything except the ātman is mithyā?
durantatamasah: the tamas, which at the end, works havoc on men.
mahatyāvștiḥ: mahati saktiḥ: great power.
This tamas which has disastrous effects is hard to get over ex. cept by abundance of sattva guņa. The power of concealing is stupendous. Compared to viksepa-śākti, it (the tamo guna) is very strong as it is the cause of intense delusion.
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In order to convey that tamoguņa will be destroyed by śravana (listening to the scriptural texts and words of the guru), manana (reflecting on them), nididhyāsana (getting determinate knowledge about them), and that, by asambhāvanā, viparitabhāvanā and
