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VIVEKACŪĻĀMANI
as the tender core of the iṣikā is carefully separated from its coverings in the muñjā-grass, and who remains for ever firmly established in that ātman.
muñja: a kind of grass.
isīkā: a delicate thread inside this grass. One must exercise the utmost care to take it out whole and entire from the surrounding grass. Vide the śruti: eşa sarveşu bhūteṣu gūḍhātmā na prakāśate drsyate tu agryayā buddhyā sūkṣmayā sūkṣmadarsibhiḥ 11 (Katha). "The atman concealed in all creatures does not shine out. It is however seen by the sharp intellect of those who can see what is subtle". By the mind purified by observance of the prescribed karmas and by meditation (upāsanā), the ātman must be separated from the totality of seen objects which are the anatman.
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drsyavargát: from the assemblage of whatever is anātman; which belongs to the category of what is seen.
pratyañcam: prātilomyena añcati seeing in the reverse way (not in the usual outgoing way of the senses) i.e., seeing that which shines as pure existence, intelligence and bliss and distinct from what is unreal and material, and which is free from grief and ahamkāra.
asangam: being free from every attachment to anything else as it is without a second.
akriyam: as it is undivided and not delimited, it is without any action.
ātmānam vivicya: separating the atman; completely eliminating everything from it to the extent of not even thinking of any perceivable object with the firm conviction that there is nothing that is real apart from the atman.
pravilapya: determining that there is nothing other than the pratyagātman.
He who is established for ever in the contemplative realisation of this inner ātman is said to be liberated from
every kind of
bondage.
The state of remaining for ever as Brahman is to be attained by discriminating between the atman and the anatman. Thus, the man of discrimination should expunge from the mind every trace of contamination by the material world and be firmly established in Brahman.
