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VIVEKACŪDAMANI
recall of an object in the mind by previous intense thought of it and without reflection of its antecendent and consequent.” Though the visayas are binding agencies, they are wrongly thought of as giving pleasure and they are sought after. The vāsanās are the dry fuel. If there is no fuel, mere flow of clarified butter will not produce a lasting flame. So too, in the absence of vāsanās, the visayas will not make for bondage. Flaming brightly and without break by the fuel of vāsanās, the fire of the manomayakośa burns the world; it reduces it to ashes, i.e., makes all men undeserving to attain their objective (of mokşa).
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That the manas is the cause of bondage is explained affirmatively and negatively (by the methods of anvaya and vyatireka.) न ह्यस्यविद्या मनसोऽतिरिक्ता
मनो ह्यविद्या भवबन्धहेतुः। तस्मिन् विनष्टे सकलं विनष्टं
विजृम्भितेऽस्मिन् सकलं विजृम्भते ॥१७१ ॥ na hyastyavidyā manaso'tiriktā
mano hyavidyā bhavabandhahetuḥ, tasmin vinaste sakalam vinastam
vijrmbhite'smin sakalam vijrmbhate 11
There is no avidyā apart from the mind. The mind clearly is avidyā, the cause of the bondage of samsāra. When that is lost (stilled), everything is lost (stilled). When it (reappears and) grows, everything reappears and grows (into consciousness).
In dreamless sleep there persists the primal avidyā (mūla or kāraṇa-avidyā). Yet, there is no bondage at the time. For the mind alone which is the effect of that avidyā makes for bondage. In dreamless sleep the mind is stilled. So there is no avidyā apart from the mind. Hence, the cause of the bondage of samsāra is avidyā and, being its effect, the mind only. If the mind is functioning, there is bondage in the shape of identification with the body etc. If it is not functioning, this identification does not exist. Thus, both by the method of anvaya (accordance) and of vyatireka (divergence), manas is seen to be the cause of the bondage of samsāra. The same idea is explained in the second half of the śloka: when the mind is lost, i.e., stilled, everything is stilled. For, it is well known that there is no (awareness of the) world in dreamless sleep.
