Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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ship and variety, and strengthened by the cement of ancient (anadi) nondiscrimination (aviveka). This mental structure is sustained by non-inquiry (avicara). The new (apurva) knowledge of the soul's identity with Brahman initiates a change in the mental structure of accustomed (naisargika) finitude. Through the practice of the final discipline - sravana, manana, and nididhyasana - the bricks of agency, knower-ship, enjoyer-ship, and difference get destabilized, the foundations of ignorance get gradually undermined and uprooted by mediate knowledge of the oneness of the soul with Brahman. When this knowledge of Self - Brahman identity matures, it activates the dormant spiritual consciousness of infinitude (brahmatva) to enlarge and expand. A seeker who is on the threshold of liberation abandons all pursuits (karmas), secular (laukika) and sacred (vaidika), and remains in an attitude of indifference to all stimuli - external and internal, like a witness (saksin). This attitude of indifference towards undesirable feelings is also a stance of psychology to overcome unwanted mental-modes.
When the aspirant finally abides as Brahman, the latter which is infinite (ananta) becomes the individual's object (visaya) of consciousness. According to the kita-bhramara nyaya or the tat-kratu nyaya, the mind becomes that which it constantly meditates on. In contemplation, the notion of infinitude matures, or is incubated, in the cocoon of the mind. The mind, being finite, can neither arrest nor accommodate the expanding consciousness of infinitude. Therefore, finitude drops off, and the soul metamorphoses into Brahman. The complex of illusory plurality and the edifice of personality collapse like a deck of cards. Like a butterfly emerging from the pupa, the soul outgrows the wrong identification (adhyasa) with its empirical vesture - the five sheaths (panca-kosas) - veiling and b(l)inding it. Once this is accomplished, no new mental structure needs to be raised; for, when the barriers blocking the effulgent Self are negated, the self-luminous (svaprakasa), blissful (ananda-svarupa), and ineffable Self reveals itself. The caterpillar - soul, is essentially a butterfly - Brahman; only the name and form are different, because of the association with the limiting adjunct - the cocoon in the case of the caterpillar, and the mind in the case of the soul. When the adjunct is outgrown, the real nature (svarupa-sthiti) is "attained". The fruit of the plantain tree destroys the tree itself, so also when mediate knowledge - a finite mode (khanda-vrtti) of the mind - fruitions in immediate intuitive knowledge - an infinite mode (akhandakara-vrtti) of the mind, it destroys the tree of the mind, which perpetuates the life-cycle of transmigration. Theoretical knowledge gets translated into experiential knowledge. The individual is freed from the finitude and misery of bondage and attains the infinitude and misery of bondage and attains the infinitude and bliss of liberation. The butterfly cares only for the honey of flowers, and ignores their various names and forms; so also a knower perceives only the essence of Brahman in the variety of name (nama) and form (rupa). The knower
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