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VIVEKACŪDĀMAŅI
297
here as attainment. Like the knowledge of gold-chain round one's neck.43
Reject the body which is mithyā and realise your 'I', the real ātman. Like the actor, giving up the mask which covered his body, so too in the case of the ātman.
294 For producing firm conviction, the guru again distinguishes the ātman which is signified by 'l' from the body etc.
सर्वात्मना दृश्यमिदं मूषव
नैवाहमर्थः क्षणिकत्वदर्शनात् । जानाम्यहं सर्वमिति प्रतीतिः
कुतोऽहमादेः क्षणिकस्य सिद्ध्येत् ॥२९४ ॥ sarvātmanā dịśyamidam mịşaiva
naivāhamarthaḥ kṣaṇikatvadarśanāt jānāmyaham sarvamiti pratitiḥ
kuto’hamādeḥ kṣaṇikasya siddhyet il
In all ways this world of perception is unreal only. The sense of the ego too is unreal as it is observed to be momentary. How can the belief 'I know everything' be asserted of the ego etc., which are momentary?
That which is signified by 'l' (i.e., the ātman) is real and eternal. This perceived world is only unreal as it is momentary.
kşanikatvadarśanāt: At one moment, it says 'I see'; at another, 'I hear'. Similarly, it says 'I smell', 'I taste', 'I go' etc. Wherever there is a connection with the modification of the 'I', in all those cases, the expression 'I' is frequently used. But the 'I' (the ātman) cannot attach to many things; for the ātman is one only. Where there is connection with the modification of the 'T' (ahamvyttisambandhaḥ), as the modifications of effulgence are momentary, the connected objects or activities too are momentary. There is no ground for the reality of the reflection. Hence this perceived world is in all ways unreal as it is jada, non-luminous and momentary. It is
43 The reference is to the story of the woman who suddenly thought that she had lost the gold-chain round her neck and went about looking for it everywhere outside. On being told by another that it was round her neck, she breathed a sigh of relief and said that she had 'recovered' her gold chain. The idea is she did not recover it; for she never 'lost' it. It was all along round her neck. So too says the guru to the sişya, "attain Brahman", i.e., realise that you are the Brahman which you have always been.
