________________
VIVEKACUDAMANI
Vanquishing the enemy namely ahaṁkāra, no quarter should be given to it by thinking of sense-objects. Like water sprinkled on a lime tree, it is the agent of rejuvenation.
destruction.
311
nigrhya: vanquishing.
satrorahamaḥ: of ahaṁkāra which is the cause of universal
viṣayānucintayā avakāśo na deyaḥ: no chance should be given to it by thinking of sense-objects to come back to life. Thinking of the sense-objects is the cause of reviving it. It will be said in śloka 323: na pramādādanartho'nyo jñāninaḥ svasvarupataḥ | tato mohstato' hamdhis tato bandhas tato vyatha ||
A grammatical point: What is known is called the uddeśya and what is not known is called vidheya. In a sentence prominence is to be given to the vidheya. Though the pronoun here in the second line referring to viṣayānucintaya should be in the feminine gender sā, as the word sañjīvanahetuḥ is the vidheya, saḥ in the masculine gender is used.
An example is given of the sprouting out of what has (apparently) decayed. To a decayed lemon tree that comes to life again, water becomes the cause of its revival and growth. Thus, though ahamkara is destroyed by discriminatory knowledge, it comes back to life if one indulges in the thought of sense-objects and that makes for samsāra.
But, if it be asked how the destroyed ahaṁkāra will come back to life by even thinking of sense-objects, it is replied:
viṣayeṣvāviśaccetaḥ samkalpayati tadguṇān | samyaksaṁkalpanāt kāmaḥ, kāmāt pumsaḥ pravartanam || tataḥ svarupavibhramśaḥ vibhraṣṭastu patatyadhaḥ patitasya vinā nāśam punar naroha iṣyate || śls. 327, 328. "The mind that has entered into sense-objects thinks of them. By firm thought on them, desire for them arises. From such desire arises action for a man. From that arises delusion about one's real nature and the man thus deluded falls down. One who has fallen down suffers destruction; for him there is no rising again." Thus successively desire for sense-objects arises by thought of them. The thought about them meant that they are good and can give joy. That joy relates to objects and belongs only to the mind (not to the atman). Therefore, when one is established in one's essential nature, where is thinking of sense