CH1 Inst. o SR 17,18,19,20 (Astavakra Samhita)

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17. You are unconditioned, immutable, formless, of cool disposition, of

unfathomable intelligence, and unperturbed.

 

Of cool disposition - as opposed to the individual whose mind is consumed by

the heat of the passions.

 

Unfathomable - because the Self is beyond the limitations of relative

knowledge.

 

Unperturbed - unaffected by any external or internal phenomena.

 

 

18. Know that which has form to be unreal and the formless to be permanent.

Through this spiritual instruction you will escape the possibility of

rebirth.

 

That etc. - the body etc.

 

Formless -the Self

 

Escape - the round of birth and rebirth is solely due to the identification

of the eternal self with body. mind, etc. and is destroyed by the knowledge

of the true nature of self.

 

 

19. Just as a mirror exists wthin and without the image reflected in it,

so the Supreme Self exists inside and outside this body.

 

The idea is this: The image in the mirror has no real existence. It is

mere appearance. Only the mirror exists. Similarily, only the Self exists.

Body, mind etc. have no real existence. It is only by being superimposed on

the Self that they appear to exist. Just as the reflection can not affect

the mirror, so body, mind, etc. cannot affect the self.

 

 

20. Just as the same all-pervading space is inside and outside a jar, so

the eternal, all-pervading Brahman exists in all things.

 

Chapter 1 concluded - beginning Chapter 2 - the Joy of Self-realization