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VIVEKACŪDAMANI
303
ahamkāragrahāt muktaḥ svarūpam upapadyate 1 candravad vimalah 'pūrņaḥ sadānandaḥ svayamprabhaḥ
He who is released from the grip of ahamkāra attains his real nature and shines in his native effulgence free from blemish like the moon off the eclipse.
ahamkāra itself is the grip, because, it grips (as the planet Rāhu to moon).
Like the moon released from the concealment of its native lustre, one attains one's real nature. What is one's real nature? It is being free from defect, being pure; full, not limited; ever blissful, of the nature of eternal joy; self-luminous, being of the nature of cit. These four qualities can also be seen in the moon freed from the eclipse by Rāhu. In the case of the moon, 'sadānanda must be understood as sadā ānandaḥ yena, that by which ānanda is for ever obtained. As attainment of one's true nature is itself liberation, it is said that liberation ensues when ahamkāra disappears.
302
As it is what is imagined, its destruction is affirmed.
यो वा पुरषोऽहमिति प्रतीतः बुद्ध्याऽविविक्तस्तमसातिमढया। तस्यैव निश्शेषतया विनाशे ब्रह्मात्मभावः प्रतिबन्धशून्यः ॥३०२॥ yo vā puraişo'hamiti pratītaḥ
buddhyā aviviktas tamasātimūdhayā tasyaiva niśćeşatayā vināśe
brahmātmabhāvah partibandhaśünyah 11
Only when that (ahamkāra) which before (the dawn of jñāna) is believed to be the 'I' by the ununderstanding intellect clouded by the darkness of ajñāna is destroyed without a trace, the sense of the identity between Brahman and the ātman is devoid of any hindrance. tamasā: by ajñāna.
atimūdhayā: which does not have the capacity to know the nature of the ātman by discrimination and analysis.
buddhyā aviviktah: which was not distinguished from buddhi. purā eşah aham iti pratitah: what was known earlier as 'I'. va: here indicates what is well-known.
pratītaḥ: understood as limited.
