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VIVEKACŪĻĀMAŅI
naikaḥ: In the same janma it is known differently in boyhood, youth etc.
ghatavatparidṛśyamanaḥ: visible like a pot. Being dependent on illumination by an object outside it, it is dependent on it for its visibility.
katham bhavati bhavavikāravettä:
How can it itself be the knower of its own changes as now it is lean, now it is stout etc. No object in the world can know its own changes. For, a thing cannot know its own qualities. The pot does not see itself. Therefore, it is said: "The body is not the atman; for it is visible like the pot' etc. The atman is eternal, quality-less, of the same nature always (ie., not subject to change); and it is also the seer.
158
Another reason for it is given.
पाणिपादादिमान् देहो नात्मा व्यङ्गेऽपि जीवनात् । तत्तच्छक्तेरनाशाच्च न नियम्यो नियामक: ।। १५८ ।।
pāņipādādiman deho nātmā vyange'pi jīvanaāt tattacchakter anāśācca na niyamyo niyamakaḥ 11
The body has hands, feet etc. It is not the atman as one is able to live even without limbs and as their powers are not lost. The ruled cannot be the ruler.
pāṇipādādi: hands, feet etc. The adi (etc.) is to include the sides and the belly. The combination of the hands, feet, etc. is not the ātman.
vyange'pi jīvanat: because, even if one is without these limbs, one lives. In the world we see men without hands and feet still living, as breathing continues. They perform the functions of receiving, and going from place to place with artificial limbs. There is no dependence on the natural limbs. Therefore, the body with hands etc., is not the atman. In the Kathopaniṣad, it is said: na prāṇena nāpānena martyo jivati kaścana itarena tu jīvanti yasminnetāvupāśritau || : "The jiva who is mortal does not subsist merely by the prāņa or the apāņa; both these depend on the atman which is of the nature of cit." This shows that the atman is the basis of all powers.
The atman is the ruler, not the ruled, of the body, the senseorgans etc. The body is the object of control as it is a jaḍa, a material, object. It does not have the quality of a ruler.
