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VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
333
340 The means to liberation and the means to those means are stated.
सर्वात्मना बन्धविमुक्तिहेतुः सर्वात्मभावान्न परोऽस्ति कश्चित् ।
दृश्याग्रहे सत्युपपद्यते सौ सर्वात्मभावोऽस्य सदात्मनिष्ठया ॥३४० ॥ sarvātmanā bandhavimuktihetuḥ
sarvatmabhāvānna paro'sti kaścit, drśyāgrahe satyupapadyate'sau
sarvatmabhāvo'sya sadātmanişthayā 11
There is no means for complete liberation from bondage other than identifying oneself with the whole universe. This identification arises upon the rejection of the perceptible world by continuous practice of meditation on the atman. .
It has been said: yato yato nivartate tataştato vimucyate, nivartanät 'hi sarvato na vetti duhkhamanvapi. To the extent that one gets liberated by complete withdrawal from everywhere, one does not feel even an iota of grief. Accordingly, the means for the complete freedom from bondage is identifying oneself with everything (cultivation of sarvātmabhāva). Than it there are no other means. It has been said: aham brahmasmi yo veda sa sarvam bhavati tvidam i nābhūtyā āśate devāḥ teşāmātmā bhaveddhi saḥ 11 "He who knows (realises) 'I am Brahman', he becomes all this; the devas endeavour to thwart the seeker of Brahman; hence, he should become themselves."47
That which is a bond (like a rope) will bind only what is other than itself, not itself, on account of the impossibility of the same thing being the binder and the bound. For, it has been said in the Sūtra Bhāsya: However well trained, a dancer cannot get up on his own shoulders. Fire does not burn itself. Therefore, when identification with everything (sarvātmabhāva) has been attained, what is considered as a source of bondage, becomes inseparable from one's self, and then, where is bondage? The Kaivalyopanişad says: sarvabhūteșu cātmānam sarvabhūtāni cātmani sampaśyan brahma, paramam yāti nanyena hetunā; 11 "One attains the supreme Brahman seeing the ātman in all creatures and all creatures in the ātman; not by any other method.” It means: one sees the atman as the material and the substratum of all creatures as the rope is in the rope-snake example, and also sees all creatures
47 The ideas is that the devas do not countenance men seeking Brahmajñāna lest they should then give up yajñas causing loss of oblation to the devas. To counteract this, the seeker of Brahmajñāna is counselled to get an attitude of looking on all this including the devas as himself.
