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438
VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
jadan: the fools. samadhātum: to reply (to them).
bāhyadrstyā: vyavahāra-rītyā: from an empirical point of view.
śrutiḥ vadati: şruti declares by saying: 'yāvanna vimokşye' etc.
464 One should not ever be deluded into thinking that the body etc., which is karma-born is not an appearance like the shell-silver, but is real.
न तु देहादिसत्यत्वबोधनाय विपश्चिताम् ।
va: safa9a: qTHPTIT: 118811 natu dehādisatyatvabodhamāya vipaścitām yataḥ śruter abhiprāyaḥ paramārthaikagocaraḥ 11
Not for teaching to the learned the reality of the body etc., (the said śruti is to be interpreted). The import of the śruti relates to the transcendental only.
(Note: The last line of śloka 463 should be taken along with śloka 464).
na tu vipascitām bodhanāya: not to teach the jñānins, the learned.
The śruti does not speak to convey the reality of the body etc., to the jñānins. For, the learned entertain no such doubts as are referred to in the previous sloka in respect of fools who alone are prone to do so: not the learned.
As darkness is destroyed by light, even if the ajñāna which is the material cause of the world is destroyed, it is said that the body will be destroyed on the liquidation of prārabdha by the statement "tāvān vilambah". That will lead to the conclusion that the body is not the result of ajñāna, but that it is true, being the product of karma. This is not right. According to the Tārkika theory the cloth which has the threads as its material, continues for a moment after the threads are destroyed.59 Śri Vidyaranya writing
59 The reference here is to the theory of causation according to the Tärkikas. The cause according to Tarka is that it is the niyatapūrvavrtti of the effect, i.e. the invariable antecedent and that there is a time interval, however short, between the origination (and destruction) of the cause and the origination (and destruction) of the effect. If there is such a time interval, it means that after the destruction of the threads which are the cause of the cloth, the cloth exists, and only later it gets destroyed. The interval may be very small; but that is not of significance. What is significant is that even for a short period after the destruction of the cause (the threads), the effect (the cloth) abides.
