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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
183
apāpaviddham (Isa.) etc. "The ātman is unborn, eternal, pure and sinless.”
157 The guru explains clearly the transiency of the material body. पूर्व जनेरपि मृतेरथ नायमस्ति
जातक्षणक्षणगुणोऽनियतस्वभावः। नैको जडश्च घटवत् परिदृश्यमानः
स्वात्मा कथं भवति भावविकारवेत्ता ॥ १५७ ॥ pūrvam janerapi mạteratha nāyamasti
jätakṣaṇakşaņaguņo'niyata:svabhāvaḥ 1 naiko jadaśca ghatavat paridyśyamūnaḥ
svātmā katham bhavati bhāvavikāravetta 11
It does not exist before its origination or after its destruction. Every moment it is subject to birth and death and so is impermanent. It is not of the same nature always. It is material and visible like a pot. How can it be the ātman which knows the changes of existence? pūrvam janeh: before birth: before origination. mrteratha: after death, after destruction. api: in both cases of birth and death.
It (the gross body) is drstanaşțasvabhāvah, i.e., it is destroyed (passes out of existence) even while one is seeing it. The Mandūkya Kārikā says: ādāvante ca yannāsti vartamāne'pi tattathā: "That which is not in the beginning and at the end, is non-existent also in the present." So it is anirvacanīya: indescribable33 because it is dịştanastasvabhāva.
The same is further explained by jātakşaņakşaņa etc., kşaşakşaņaguna: That which is subject to origination and destruction every moment. By contact with vāyu (wind), and by the movement of the breath in the body, it lives; but, by the process of drying up due to consumption of this vāyu, it begins to decline. Hence the frequent intake of food and water.
so it is impermanent; i.e., it is of inconstant
aniyatasvabhāvah: nature.
33 It is so because you cannot say it is real; for it disappears ultimately. You cannot say it is unreal; for it is seen. You cannot say it is both real and unreal; for that will involve a contradiction. Hence, it is spoken of as indescribable, anirvacanīya.
