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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
can neither be said to be a thing or object of perception. It is ever unattached, non-acting like the sky which, being without form, is wrongly said to be of blue colour. The same is conveyed by Sri Samkara in his bhāsya: apratyakşe' pi hyākase bālāstalamalinatadyadhyasyanti: "Boys (people) without discrimination superimpose black, yellow, blue etc., on the invisible sky". Even as blueness etc., are not true, so too are all these predications about the ātman caused by delusion and are not valid. It is to be understood that the sky does not become blue merely by imagination.
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Making the same clear, by the next two ślokas, the annulment of samsāra is explained. The real nature of the ātman is explained in two ways through śruti and the realisation of the wise; this is done to prove mithyātva (appearential or phenomenal) character of the jiva.
स्वस्य द्रष्टुनिर्गुणस्याक्रियस्य प्रत्यग्बोधानन्दरूपस्य बुद्धेः। भान्त्या प्राप्तो जीवभावो न सत्यो मोहापाये नास्त्यवस्तु स्वभावात् ॥ १९८॥ svasya drasturnirguņasyākriasya
pratyagbodhānandarūpasya buddheḥ bhrāntyā prāpto jīvabhāvo na satyo
mohāpāye nästyavastu svabhāvāt 11
This ātman (the seer or sākşin) is quality-less and actionless and is realised within as Knowledge and Bliss Absolute. The jīvahood of this ātman is an imagination by the delusion of buddhi'and is not true. As it is by nature untrue, it vanishes with the annulment of the delusion. drașțuḥ: of the drașțā or the witness (sākşin.) nirgunasya: of what is devoid of any quality. akriyasya: of what is actionless, devoid of any change.
pratyagbodhānandarūpasya: that which is of the nature of bliss of inmost knowledge.
Of such an ātman, the jivabhāva is imagined by wrong identification of the ātman. It is not true, i.e., it is not that it is impossible of sublation. The delusion is destroyed by the realisation of one's real nature.
