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186
VIVEKACUDAMANI
How can the body consisting of bones, covered with flesh, full of filth and very impure be the ātman, the knower who is distinct from them?
The body is the combination of bones; it consists of flesh. It is filled with excreta including exudations from the eye, the nose and the ear. Hence, it is very dirty. It is very impure by reason of the sweat and the other foul-smellng things in it. How can such an impure thing be the impurity-less ātman which is quite different from it? The ātman cannot be such a body.
161 The fruit of such discrimination is conveyed. त्वङमांसमेदोऽस्थिपुरीषराशावहमति मूढजनः करोति । विलक्षणं वेत्ति विचारशीलो निजस्वरूपं परमार्थभूतम् ॥१६१ ॥ tvan-māmsa-medo'sthi-purīşarašau
ahammatim müdhajanaḥ karoti, vilaksanam vetti vicāraśīlo
nijasvarūpam paramārthabhūtamil
The fool identifies his ātman with his body made of skin, flesh, fat, bones and excreta. The man of discrimination, however, knows his true nature to be the supreme Reality.
mūdhajanaḥ: a person who does not inquire: one whose mind is deluded. Such a person considers his ātman to be this body which is a combination of the skin, the flesh, the fat, the bones and the excreta. The man given to inquiry, however, knows his ātman to be that which is totally different from the body, which is the supreme Reality, which is incapable of being sublated in any of the three periods of time and which is his true nature and identical with himself.
162 In this connection: देहोऽहमित्येव जडस्य बुद्धिः
देहे च जीवे विदुषस्त्वहंधीः। विवेकविज्ञानवतो महात्मनो
ब्रह्माहमित्येव मतिः सदात्मनः ॥ १६२॥ deho'hamityeva jaļasya buddhiḥ
dehe ca jīve viduşastvahamdhiḥ
