No effort is necessary - Sankara

[Guest guest]

Mr. Tim Gerchmez writes about Sankara's statement that all that is

necessary is the removal of Ignorance and then Atman will be

self-revealing. In this connection there is a most beautiful quote

from Sankara from his Commentary on the Verse No.50 of Ch.18 of the

Bhagavad Gita. The verse simply says: Learn from Me, briefly, O

Arjuna, how attaining that perfection of Actionlessness one attains

brahman, the Supreme, the highest height of all. Sankara comments on

the word 'attains' here, very elaborately. The Sanskrit word here is

'Apnoti'. It is not that Brahman is sitting somewhere far out there

and one goes and reaches it. Brahman can never be the object of

attainment, since it is itself the Subject. So Sankara makes the

paradoxical plea that the effort should only be to discard the

superimposition of Ignorance on the Self, and therefore no effort need

be made to 'obtain' the enlightenment of brahman. The tragedy here,

says Sankara is that the differentiations are nothing but names and

forms stipulated by Ignorance and this has misled our discretion and

intellect -- the consequence being what is most explicit in us looks

implicit, what is well-known to us appears unknowable, what is nearest

to us seems distant, what is our own self turns out to be something

other than ourselves. The Sanskrit reads as follows:(Those who can

understand Sanskrit can see the majesty and power of this sentence!):

avidyA-kalpita-nAma-rUpa-viSesha-AkAra-apahrita-buddhitvAt,

atyanta-prasiddham suvijneyam Asannataram AtmabhUtam-api aprasiddham

durvijneyam atidUram anyadiva ca pratibhAti avivekinAm. tasmAt

avidyA-dhyAropeNa nirAkaraNa-mAtram brahmaNi kartavyam na tu

brahma-jnAne yatnaH kartavyaH!

Regards to

Fellow Advaitins

Yours, V. Krishnamurthy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

==

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

You are invited to visit my Spirituality Home Page at

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/2952/

and also to my article on Cosmic Day of Brahma in

http://indiaheritage.com/rendez/article1.htm