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364
VIVEKACUDAMAŅI
yu.
those who enjoy the excellences like animasi etc., do not escape from bondage. It is clear from the Purānas etc., that though they practised extreme penance, Hiranyakaśipu and others became involved in samsāra due to absence of vairāgya. Even if their tapas went to the length of worms eating into their bones, it could not prevent them from fall for want of self-control. Hence, it is said that even for those whose bodies are under control, there will be no spiritual happiness without vairāgya. For those whose body etc., are not under control, there can be no vairāgya; hence the reference to self-control. Similarly, I do not see any source of spiritual happiness even for those who control themselves by hathayoga.
suddhataraḥ ātmabodhaḥ: the understanding of the nature of the ātman produced by the analysis of the five kośas. If this vairāgya is combined with such śuddhatara-ātmabodha, it yields svārājya and sāmrājya.
svärājya: the state of svarāt: lordship over oneself. When there is attachment, the mind is conditioned by sense-objects. When there is vairāgya, it is not so conditioned by anything external to itself. The state of the mind not being dependent on anything else is svārājya or sovereignty or the state of not being ordered by anything else (itara-aniyāmyatvam). Sämrājya is the state of ruling over everything (sarva-niyāmakatvam). For, the Brahmajñānin is higher than even God Himself.52
Such a vairāgya of the man of self-control leads to svārājya and samrajya. Hence this vairāgya is the door to the excellence that is liberation, i.e., it leads to the eternal blissful enjoyment of mukti. Vide the previous sloka where it has been said: atyantavairāgyavataḥ samādhiḥ: "Samādhi accrues to one of extreme vairāgya."
Hence, you should cultivate complete non-attachment to senseobjects.
sadātmani: in Brahman which is of the nature of Sat. sada: always, without intermission. . śreyase: for mukti.
prajñām kuru: practise nirvikalpa-samadhi which is the means for the realisation of the Truth. Jñāna is vastutantra i.e., it is ob
51 One of the eight siddhis or supernatural powers. anima: minuteness, making the body very light or subtle, animā mahima caiva garimă laghima tatha prāptih prākāmyam išitvam vasitvam cāstabhūtayah: Becoming the most minute, becoming the most mighty, becoming stout, becoming slender, reaching to the farthest from where one stands, obtaining whatever is desired, overlordships and obtaining control are the eight bhūtis or siddhis.
52 Iśvara is sopädhika, bound up by upădhis. He is the aupadhika-edition of the nirguna Brahman while the Brahmavit realises the nirupādhika condition.