Why a commentary? Vedas....

[Guest guest]

Namaste All,

 

In the second chapter of Upadesa Sahasri, Sankara makes clear what sort of

knowledge self-

knowledge is and how it differs from ordinary objective knowledge. His initial

statement seems

paradoxical so it is worth quoting the whole passage so that context is

retained.

 

107-108: .....I have said that knowledge, the result produced by evidences, is

the same as the

self-evident, self-effulgent, and the changeless Self. That is what I mean by

knowledge.

 

108: The objector (the disciple) says, "It is contradictory to state that

Knowledge is the

result of evidences and (at the same time) it is the self-effulgent Self which

is changeless and

eternal."

 

The reply given to him is this "It is not a contradiction."

 

How then is knowledge a result?

 

"(It is a result in a secondary sense:) though changeless and eternal, It is

noticed in the

presence of mental modifications called sense-perception etc. as they are

instrumental in making

It manifest. It appears to be transitory as the mental modifications called

sense-perception

etc. are transitory. It is for this reason that it is called the result of

proofs in a

secondary sense."

 

Comment: The secondary sense of knowledge is akin to that given by the term

'realised' in

English which indicates that a person embodies, instantiates or lives a certain

condition of

awareness. Knowing himself he knows that. In his commentary on the Kena

Upanisad, Sankara

declares: "Being the witness of all cognitions, and by nature nothing but the

power of

consciousness, the Self is indicated by the cognitions themselves, in the midst

of cognitions,

as non-different from them. There is no other door to Its awareness." (II.4)

 

If there is a door, is there an opening of the door? If there is a ripening is

there a falling?

We are trapped into thinking literally of stages and transitions and miss what

for the sage is

obvious - we were ever thus. Ramana I think did not say that he became

enlightened in the

Vipakshah cave (?) or anywhere else. In reality his state was always the same.

 

Best Wishes, Michael.