Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan

Page 27

INTRODUCTION
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ween the ātman and the anātman. This answer is found in different contexts throughout the work.
The sisya who has been making the analysis of himself in the manner instructed by the guru, and who has been thinking away all these kośas as not being his ātman and has been separating his self from them is now assailed by a doubt and submits, "When I think away all the kośas, I see only a void. I don't see the ātman". The guru replies, "You say, 'I see only the void'; you, who are the witness of the void is the ātman, the objectless Subject." It is the sākṣi which is common to the states of waking, dream and dreamless sleep (jāgrat, svapna and susupti) and of the state of consciousness which is beyond these, turiya, experienced in the state of samadhi. Thus the guru expounds the nature of the ātman encased in every individual and known as tvampadārtha in the equation 'tat tvam asi'.
He then proceeds to the determination of the nature of Brahman, known as tatpadārtha. Distinguishing the world from Brahman, it is pointed out that it is not real, because what is real must exist in all periods of time and must not be limited by space, time or other objects; it must be trikāla-abādhya and aparicchinna, in terms of deśa, kāla and vastu. It must also not be subject to any of the twelve defects listed earlier. The world is not real like Brahman which persists in all places and at all times and is the All. But, on that account, it is not unreal, because it is seen. It is experienced by every individual. It is not sat or real; it is not asat or unreal, it is not both sat and asat, these being contradictory; it is sadasadvitakşaņa, different from both, but having an existential character of its own which is referred to as mithyā. Brahman or the Supreme Reality is One without a second, of the nature of pure Intelligence, kevala caitanyasvarūpa, beyond thought and name, untramelled by māyā and the upādhis. It is supreme effulgence which permeates the entire experiential world and animates it. The world itself derives its existential character from Brahman of which it is an appearance.
Having thus separately determined the nature of the tvam and tat padārthas, the guru proceeds to elucidate the equation between the two in terms of the mahāvākya, tat tvam asi. The apparent distinction between the two is due to their respective conjunction with the upādhis, as a result of which the universal ātman becomes circumscribed as a jīva, and Brahman takes on the vestments of iśvara. When their respective upādhis are negated and the two padārthas are understood, not literally, but by their implied mean