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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
189
So long as the mere scholar (who has only book learning) does not give up his idea arising from the wrong impression that his body, sense organs etc., which are asat (not the real ātman) are the ātman, there can be no talk of his release even if he is most proficient in the science of Vedānta.
vidvān: an expert in discrimination,
As long as a man does not give up identification of the ātman with the body, the senses, the prāna, the manas and the buddhi, till then there can be no talk of liberation, i.e., how can such a man get liberated? Let this man be an expert in the ultimate reaches of the
nce of Vedānta. Even then he is not qualified for liberation if he does not renounce this wrong identification. Hence, by incessant contemplation all misapprehensions must be got rid of.
asati: In the body etc., which are of the nature of mithyā.
vedāntanayāntadarść: Vedānta itself is naya or sästra; tasyāntah: its goal. He who is capable of seeing it is Vedāntanayāntadarśī.
165 An easy method of effecting such renunciation is said to be vicāra or earnest inquiry or discrimination.
छायाशरीरे प्रतिबिम्बगाने _ यत्स्वप्नदेहे हृदि कल्पिताङ्गे।
यथात्मबुद्धिस्तव नास्ति काचित् ___ जीवच्छरीरे च तथैव मास्तु ॥१६५ ॥ chāyāśarīre pratibimbagātre
yatsvapnadehe hydi kalpitānge yathātmabuddhiḥ tava nästi kācit
jīvaccharīre ca tathaiva māstu 11
As you do not identify your ātman with the shadow of your body, in its reflection (in a mirror etc.) or when it is seen in a dream, or when you imagine it in your mind, so too do not identify it with your living body.
For the same reason that you do not have the sense of the 'I' (ātmabuddhi) in the shadow cast by your body, in its reflection seen in a mirror etc., in your body seen in your dream state, in a limb of your body imagined by you in the waking state, so too in the living body too give up the sense of the 'I'. The idea is that in all these cases the respective objects are seen to be separate from the seer.
