The Self-from Panchadashi

[Guest guest]

The Self-from Panchadashi

Here are the translated verses from Panchadashi by Swami Vidyaranya

regarding the above subject:

"As the Self is itself the nature of experience only, It cannot be an object

of experience. Since there is no experiencer nor any experience other than

It, the self is UNKNOWABLE - not because It does not exist but because It

cannot be an object of experience." 3-13

"How can that, by which the whole universe is known, be known by anything

else? By what can the knower be known? The mind etc., the instruments of

knowledge, can know their own percepts only." 3-17

"The Self knows all that is knowable. There is no one to know It. It is

consciousness or knowledge itself and is different from both the known and

the unknown." 3-18

"If you ask what sort of thing the Self is, then we reply that the Self

cannot be described as being 'this' or 'that'. It cannot be conceived as

being 'like this' or 'like that'; so take it as your own real nature." 3-26

"Though it cannot be made an object of knowledge, the Self is still felt

very directly. So it must be self revealing. Existence, Consciousness and

infinity, the indications used for Brahman, are all present here also (in

the Self)." 3-28

"Existence is what cannot be negated. If the Self which is the witness of

the perishable world becomes perishable, then who will be the witness to the

fact of its perishability? For destruction without a witness of it cannot be

postulated." 3-29

Translated by Swami Swahananda