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Darsana Mala - Comments Part 1

 

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A GARLAND OF VISIONS OF THE ABSOLUTE

 

(Darsana-Mala)

 

By NARAYANA GURU

 

 

 

Translated from the Sanskrit

 

with Introduction and Commentary

 

By NATARAJA GURU

 

 

 

 

 

The DARSANA-MALA (Garland of Visions of the Absolute),

 

of ten sections or Darsanas of ten verses each, is perhaps

 

the major work of the Guru Narayana and is meant

 

to present, in one symmetrically conceived whole, all

 

possible visions of the Absolute.

 

The brief Introduction and Commentary which appear

 

below were written by Nataraja Guru and were originally

 

published in "Values" magazine, while the English rendering

 

of the verses is from the Guru's later work, "An Integrated Science

 

of the Absolute".

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

Most people know that the Indian philosophical schools of

 

thought are only six in number. There is the Nyaya-Vaisesika

 

pair, with a common methodology and epistemology between them,

 

one complementary to the other in a very subtle way. Then there is

 

the couple called Samkhya-Yoga, which again form a pair with a

 

more subtle penetration into the structure of the Absolute as

 

seen from the sides of both the fully Absolute and the relatively

 

Absolute; the Samkhya, as its name signifies, specialising in

 

numbering the categories, and the Yoga, its complementary counter-

 

-part, specialising in the aspects of personal discipline in a

 

manner in keeping with the dualism as recognized between the two

 

schools.

 

 

 

The last two systems form not merely a pair, but may be called,

 

as they have been by those who know, twin schools - the Purva-

 

Mimamsa of Jaimini and the Uttara-Mimamsa attributed to

 

Badarayana (sometimes also called Vyasa). These twin schools or

 

systems of philosophy are so closely related that they become

 

inseparable in the sense that one presupposes the other. Jaimini

 

and Badarayana quote each other and the Karma- or Dharma-Mimamsa,

 

as the anterior exegetic critique might be called, pertaining to

 

the ritualistic and Vedic background, and the Brahma-Mimamsa,

 

the posterior critique can be called, have much in common, like

 

twins who might resemble the twilight hours of the morning and

 

evening. The name Sariraka Mimasa, sometimes seen applied to the

 

latter, seems to indicate that while the former refers to action

 

in the context of the Absolute, this latter comes near to

 

envisaging more globally the same situation, not as the field of

 

ritual action but as referring to the very body or Self of the

 

agent of all action in the same context of the Absolute.

 

 

 

A common epistemological and methodological thread must

 

run through the six Darsanas or systems, although individually

 

they are still perfect gems of thought-systems. Although each gem

 

has to be cut and adjusted to fit into one integral necklace or

 

garland, actually they are found to have been ground too much on

 

one side or left crude on the other. The very fact that even at

 

present they have been treated in pairs to make any complete

 

natural system of philosophy, is sufficient to show the lop-sided

 

nature of each of the gems taken separately.

 

If they are to make one necklace under the aegis of the

 

Absolute, which is the norm for all philosophy, a revaluation

 

and arrangement in graded order will be needed.

 

What the expert jeweller , therefore, will do to the

 

collection of precious gems of thought that he has inherited will

 

be first to polish each gem and then to string them together so

 

as to make them accord with an integrated Science of the

 

Absolute.

 

Each jewel is a value to be conceived with an inner

 

symmetry of structure and as comprising a unitive or global

 

whole. The beauty of the necklace would depend on such

 

correctness of grinding of even the smallest of its facets, so as

 

to require, by analogy, on the part of the maker of the garland

 

of the visions the minutest of attention to detail and

 

workmanship in respecting the slightest shades or angles of view

 

possible in making each gem conform structurally within itself to

 

the requirements of a complete garland of visions representative

 

of all philosophical points of view possible anywhere in the world

 

at any time for anyone. This would demand an over-all normative

 

notion of the Absolute as a reference for each of the Darsanas

 

which make up the series, as also a graduation as between

 

each vision, so that when the garland reaches its end it would be

 

capable of being linked naturally and normally with where it began.

 

 

 

Sankara called his work on the Vedantic Absolute the

 

Viveka-Chudamani (the Crest-Jewel of Discriminative Wisdom).

 

Narayana Guru continues the same tradition after him, and

 

thinks of not one ornament for the head, but of a whole garland

 

in which no vision of any religious or philosophical school would

 

be neglected or left out. Each would be kept in mind by him as

 

the architect of the total integrated edifice. Thus would be

 

commemorated the dignity and wisdom possible for humanity, from

 

which alone should be derived the legitimate ornament to enhance his

 

human quality as homo sapiens.

 

The garland further represents, in the symbolic gesture-

 

language of India , the whole of one's precious wealth: it is

 

implied as when a bride gives herself to the bridegroom at the

 

time of marriage. It represents the Sarvasvam (total good) that

 

one surrenders to God or the Absolute or submits to Humanity

 

itself, in an extended sense of the analogy.

 

 

 

The garland is thus meant to enhance human dignity to

 

the highest possible point, as when one man wearing a garland

 

like another would find points of agreement and not difference

 

between them, thus promoting the cause of human solidarity and

 

fellow feeling through a common ideology. Cold or hot wars which

 

"begin in the minds of men", as the United Nations Charter

 

states, consist of the same stuff out of which comes what is currently

 

referred to as "ideological warfare" in the journals of our days.

 

By the integrated, unitive and scientific understanding implied in

 

the garland of visions here presented to the world by a wise Guru,

 

such seeds of war would tend to be neutralised, while the natural man

 

of total understanding could be regained and re-established through

 

the teaching of such a philosophy in the universities and academies

 

of the future.

 

 

 

What science seeks is a really a certain degree or

 

kind of certitude arrived at by proper methods, conforming to

 

an epistemology and having a workable, useful or direct

 

significance in human life, in understanding or conduct. There

 

are two kinds of certitudes, which can be called apodictic and

 

dialectic.

 

The former is in the domain of the probable, while

 

the latter is in the domain of the possible and the intentional

 

(which is not necessarily that of the visible or actual). The

 

final instance of dialectical certitude is the axiom itself,

 

such as A = A , which requires no proof. Between the two

 

certitudes there is a dichotomy or bipolarity which expresses

 

itself in terms of ambivalence or antinomian principles in

 

various branches of knowledge. The synergisms in physiology

 

represent the same polarity in the physiological sense. The

 

psyche, the libido and the Self, too, present psycho-dynamically the

 

same alternation of phases resembling the systole and diastole of

 

the heart-beat. One complete cycle of thought has its inductive

 

and deductive phases, as also its systole and diastole. One hears

 

too of the "sex-diastole" which has a similar alternating figure-

 

eight rhythmic process, resembling quantum mechanics and the

 

mutations which occur in plant-life where certain stages are

 

jumped or alternate with others.

 

The structural details within the notion of the Absolute present

 

paradoxical enigmas to the novice in the Science of the Absolute.

 

One has to be a well-practised dialectician and absolutist to see

 

the difference between the vertical and the horizontal (i.e.

 

unitive and multiple, perennial and transient, etc.) aspects which

 

refer to the Ksetrajna (perceptual) and Ksetra (actual) aspects

 

of the Absolute in the language of the Bhagavad Gita. In

 

distinguishing these twin but intersecting axes of reference, the

 

whole of wisdom itself finally becomes comprised, as stated in the

 

Bhagavad Gita (XIII, 2).

 

When this epistemological secret has been understood in all its

 

bearings and applications in science or philosophy, a man becomes

 

able to see clearly through mazes of percepts and concepts. He

 

can then organize them into ramified hierarchies representing

 

values ranging from the actual to the nominal, with the perceptual

 

and the conceptual fitted between these extremes. The structure

 

of the series of visions in Narayana Guru's Darsana Mala conforms

 

broadly to the scheme that we have just referred to in passing.

 

Experimental proof of the empirical sciences corresponds to the

 

Pratyaksha of the Indian Tarka or Nyaya school, and complete

 

a-priorism corresponds to the Sabda Pramana of the Vedantins.

 

Possibilities and probabilities belong to the Arthapatti and the

 

Anumana respectively of the Samkhya and other schools.

 

Anupalabdhi is impossibility, where probability is ruled out

 

completely. All these ways of reasoning have between them a

 

reciprocal or complementary nature. When the subtlest kind of

 

certitude is involved, as in the case of the notion of the

 

Absolute which has to be defined, one employs analogy and

 

hypothetical predication to be verified later on direct

 

experience of the Absolute. This is the method of Upamiti

 

(hypothetical analogy), which is the highest instrument of all.

 

What in the West is known as the "method of agreement and

 

difference" is the Anvaya-vyatireka method of Vedanta, which is

 

of great use when the final stage of speculation about the nature

 

of the Absolute is in question.

 

Thus the fully scientific status of the verses of the Darsana

 

Mala does not present a problem at all to those who are

 

conversant with dialectical and absolutist methodology, epistemo-

 

-logy and the scale of values leading to the highest value in

 

the Self as the Absolute. Certitude resides neither in the subject

 

or the object, but in the neutral or central Absolute which is the

 

norm for all thought.

 

 

 

 

 

COMMENTARY

 

 

CHAPTER I.

 

This is essentially a realistic and theological chapter. If the

 

world is treated as real, then one has to find a source for it

 

somewhere, whether in a maker or a final cause. Usually, Sankara's

 

Vedanta treats the world as Maya, and whatever reality it has in

 

practical life belongs to the order of the Vyavaharika rather

 

than to that of the Paramarthika, which refers to reality in its

 

fullest sense. Here in the Darsana Mala we have a chapter called

 

Adhyaropa which is one of "supposition for argument's sake".

 

Suppose the world is real, as the majority of ordinary men and

 

women take it to be in life? There must be a vision corresponding

 

to such a natural position.

 

To brush aside such an ordinary man's position in respect of

 

ordinary natural philosophical problems would be to slight all

 

common men who have doubts. A seemingly theological answer is

 

given here for such a man in the street, but, on careful and closer

 

examination of the contents, one finds that the Guru does not

 

deviate one bit from the strictly Vedantically valid position

 

here; not even when compared to doctrines of the Vedanta

 

Sutras themselves, which begin by stating: "Janmadyasya Yatah":

 

"By which the visible world is traced back to Brahman".(Sutra 2).

 

The justification for this is a long one to explain, but it will

 

suffice to note here that when it is said that the world is the

 

Sankalpa (willed presentiment) of Parameswara ( the Great Lord)

 

and that its status is the same as that of a dream, as the very

 

first verse of this chapter lays down, the position strictly

 

conforming to Vedanta is not violated at all. But instead of

 

referring to the Ajata (uncreated) and Vivarta (presentiment)

 

theories commonly accepted by Advaita Vedantins, the Guru here is

 

able to reconcile a theological God with a philosophical

 

Absolute. In doing so, he bridges the gap which has been the

 

source of much wasted polemics between Sankara, Ramanuja and

 

Madhva.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER II.

 

This chapter has its accent slightly shifted epistemologically

 

and subjectively from the objective empirical to the mental or

 

rational sphere. It is, however, to be noted that the gross and

 

subtle aspects, one more mental than the other, receive equal

 

emphasis here, instead of one being abandoned in favour of the

 

other. There is an equation of cause and effect, the latter

 

visible and the former intelligible. By cancellation of these two

 

factors, one against the other, the neutral Absolute remains still

 

the "subject matter" as well as the "object matter" of this

 

vision. It thus resembles the Neutral Monism of Russell and James.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER III.

 

This chapter will be seen to be more epistemologically idealist

 

than realist. The blue of the sky is neither "in us" nor " out

 

there", but is a subjective awareness in a more accentuated sense

 

than in the previous vision. The perceptual and the actual are

 

here cancelled out in the Absolute, which can contain them both

 

without contradiction. By the time we reach the last verse of

 

this chapter, all duality between the universal and the specific

 

will have been abolished in favour of a unitive view.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV.

 

Here we enter a deeper epistemological ground in which, beginning

 

from Vidya (knowledge) and its counterpart Avidya (nescience), all

 

epistemological pairs or factors that enter into the negative

 

side of the Absolute as the Maya-principle, which is the over-all

 

category of all possible error in respect of the Absolute, are

 

passed under review, to show how they fall short yet of full-

 

- fledged reality. The epistemological position of Maya, admitting

 

and transcending contradiction, is a subtle one. From Pure Reason

 

to Nature spreads the amplitude of this vision coming under Maya.

 

 

 

CHAPTER V.

 

As the last verse of this chapter occupies the central position

 

in the whole work, this chapter is so conceived in epistemological

 

gradation that it studies the neutral Absolute in terms of

 

consciousness alone. The perfect neutrality of the Absolute, where

 

the conceptual and the perceptual abolish each other into the

 

glory of the Absolute, as contained in such Vedantic dicta as Aum

 

Tat Sat (Aum, That Exists) etc., is here marked; and we can say

 

that, like a pendant that might hang in a necklace of gems strung

 

together from its most central gem, the Mahavakya or Great Saying

 

is seen subtly indicated in its most suitable context at the end

 

of the 50th verse of the whole work, at the end of this chapter.

 

The reader or keen student has himself to fit all such detailed

 

implications into the text wherever they are warranted.

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER VI.

 

Here we have already passed the centre of gravity, as it were, of

 

this work. Karma (action or work) is generally considered outside

 

the scope of Vedanta, which is called the Jnana-Kanda (wisdom

 

section); but as Karma-Yoga it appears in the Bhagavad Gita and

 

is to be treated as being on a par with wisdom when done

 

passionlessly as an offering to the Absolute, as a necessary

 

aspect of life only, and non-obligatorily in the social sense.

 

Done in such a free spirit, and in a rationally or dialectically

 

revalued form, it becomes a help rather than a hindrance to

 

emancipation. When done for its own sake, without any duality of

 

ends and means entering into it, and with vertical aspects alone

 

accentuated and the horizontal aspects eliminated, it can be part

 

and parcel of the wisdom-discipline of Advaita Vedanta proper.

 

Like the "unmoved mover" and the "pure act" in the philosophy of

 

Aristotle , there is a dialectically balanced way of engaging in

 

works, without prejudice to one's progress in the path of wisdom.

 

Detachment is referred to in Verse 5, and what takes place within

 

body limits, as also such acts as seeing, which is a kind of

 

interaction between the seer and the seen, the Self and the non-

 

Self, have all to be cancelled out against their dialectical

 

counterparts, and the neutral Absolute arrived at under this

 

Darsana.

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII.

 

Knowledge being the central subject here, one might inquire if

 

this had not been covered in Chapter V. There it was passive

 

awareness that was examined. Here, on the other hand, coming after

 

action of the previous chapter, it is positive thinking and its

 

results that are treated as knowledge. The duality of subject and

 

object comes out again into evidence as a methodological and

 

epistemological necessity for the discussion to complete its

 

round. The various kinds of ratiocination and logical

 

inferences, and the use of analogies, inductively, inferentially or

 

hypothetically, are all covered in an order of the Guru's own. The

 

absolute knowledge mentioned in Verse 10 of this Darsana may be

 

compared with that of the corresponding verse in Chapter V,

 

so as to bring out into full relief the differences in the

 

epistemological status of this chapter, which could be said to be

 

more positive, while the fifth chapter was a neutral view of the

 

same subject as the content, rather than the object, of

 

consciousness.

 

 

 

CHAPTER VIII.

 

Devotion being the subject of this chapter, a close scrutiny of

 

the verses will reveal that the only distinguishing feature of

 

devotion as against of knowledge in the previous chapter is that

 

an element of joy is introduced here, which will be noticed to

 

become further accentuated in the two remaining Darsanas.

 

Joy, bliss or communion with the Absolute has various

 

grades or degrees before it becomes perfected into identity with

 

the Absolute, which would mark the term of progress in

 

contemplative life. It is the Self that the Self contemplates

 

with joy, and not any deity or godhead before whose idol it

 

is usual to associate a typical man of Bhakti dancing or singing

 

with cymbal or drumbeats in India. Both Sankara and Narayana Guru

 

here elevate Bhakti to a fully contemplative status, dis-

 

-countenancing mere popular effusions in its name.

 

 

 

CHAPTER IX.

 

The title here refers to the most publicized and misunderstood

 

of all topics in Indian spirituality, namely, Yoga.

 

Yoga means union of two aspects of the same Self, as if happening

 

within consciousness itself. And further, this union has to be

 

conceived under two distinct heads as happening between the

 

horizontally dual aspects, and as taking place between the lower

 

and higher selves vertically. This delicate distinction has not

 

been brought out by Patanjali in his Yoga-Sutras. The four

 

different definitions of Yoga found in the Bhagavad Gita

 

too, although elaborate in their own way, leave out this delicate

 

matter where the union is both Samyoga (contiguous association)

 

and Sambandha (continuous association) at once, of the tendencies

 

within the Self. The very first verse makes this clear in its

 

striking definition. The joy of being thus unitively absorbed in

 

the Absolute is here seen to be more accentuated than in the case

 

of Bhakti, which is in this respect a more passive or negative

 

state, although both belong to the positive side of contemplation

 

as a whole.

 

 

 

CHAPTER X.

 

To complete the contemplative cycle, the supreme value of release

 

or emancipation is here the subject-matter. We find in the world

 

many persons who claim spirituality: how are they to be classified

 

and graded according to inner principles proper to the subject of

 

contemplation?

 

Almost like a book on grammar, the Guru here excels in analysis

 

and divides and even numbers the possible varieties of

 

mystical and contemplative experience into various grades and

 

sub-grades. It will be noticed that, in the higher grades, all

 

matters of doing good in a philanthropic sense drop off, although

 

in less perfect stages they exist, as it were, on sufferance. Piety

 

and works have to part company somewhere, and when one is totally

 

absorbed in unity with Brahman, the Absolute, no question of a

 

second value outside the self can even arise. Self-realisation in

 

the fullest sense, when a man forgets himself in the

 

Absolute completely, is the last mark of punctuation to which this

 

garland takes us. It catches up thereby with the very first

 

chapter where the world is given primacy as against the Self that

 

is given primacy in this last of all chapters. The garland thus

 

retains its link with the beginning of the subject, and a full

 

cycle of contemplative topics has thus been covered in a graded

 

inner order, always under the same normative reference to the

 

Absolute.

 

 

 

 

 

I ADHYAROPA-DARSANAM (VISION BY SUPPOSITION)

 

 

 

1.asidagre sadevedam bhuvanam svapnavat punah

 

sasarja sarvam sankalpamatrena paramesvarah

 

 

 

In the beginning, there was

 

Non-existence indeed!

 

Dream-wise then again, by mere willing

 

Everything existent created He, the Lord supreme.

 

 

 

AGRE,in the beginning (before creation),IDAM BHUVANAM,this

 

world ASAD EVA,even as nothingness( as non-existence,indeed)

 

ASID,existed,PUNAH,thereafter (at the time of creation),

 

PARAMESVARAH,thesupremelord,SARVAM,everything

 

SANKALPAMATRENA,by mere willing,SVAPNAVAT,like a dream,

 

SA-SARJA, (he) created

 

 

 

 

 

2. vasanamayamevada vasididamatha prabhuh

 

asrjanmayaya svasya mayavivakhilam jagat

 

 

 

In the beginning, in the form of incipient memory factors,

 

(All) this remained. Then the Lord,

 

By his own power of false presentiment, like a magician,

 

Created all this world (of change).

 

 

 

ADAU,in the beginning(at inception,before creation),

 

IDAM,this (visible world),VASANAMAYAM EVA,in the form

 

of incipientmemory factors,(i.e. as Samskaras,deep aperceptive masses

 

in consciousness), ASID,(remained) existent,ATHA,thereafter (at the time of

creation),

 

PRABHUH,the lord,SVASYA,(by) his own MAYAYA,

 

by (his power of) false presentiment,MAYAVIVA,like a magician,

 

AKHILAM JAGAT,the whole world,ASRIJAT,created.

 

 

 

 

 

3. pragutpatteridam svasmin vilinamatha vai svatah

 

bijadankuravat svaysa saktireva'srjatsvayam

 

 

 

This (world) before creation was

 

Latent within Himself,

 

Thereafter, like a sprout from seed,

>From Himself, by His power, by itself it was created.

 

 

 

IDAM,this (world),PRAKUTPATTEH,before creation,SVASMIN,in

 

Himself (in the self,in the lord),VILINAM,was latent,

 

ATHA VAI,thereafter,BIJAD ANKURAVAT,like sprout from seed,

 

SVATAH,from himself (from the lord),SVASYA SAKTIH,his power,

 

SVATAH EVA,by itself,ASRJAT,created.

 

 

 

 

 

4. saktistu dvividha jneya taijasi tamasiti ca

 

sahavaso'nayornasti tejastimirayoriva

 

 

 

The power, however, as of two kinds

 

Is to be known, as the bright and the dark;

 

There is no co-existence between these two,

 

As with light and darkness.

 

 

 

SAKTIS TU,this power,however,TAIJASI TAMAS ITI CA,and thus made

 

of light and darkness,DVIVIDHA,two kinds,JNEYA,is to be known,

 

ANAYOH,as between these,TEJASTI MIRAYOR IVA,so with light and

 

darkness,SAHAVASAH STI,there is no co-existence.

 

 

 

 

 

5. manomatramidam citramivagre sarvamidrsam

 

prapayamasa vaicitryam bhagavan citrakaravat

 

 

 

In the beginning, this world,

 

Which was in the form of mind stuff, like a picture

 

Achieved with all this picturesque variety,

 

Like an artist, the Lord.

 

 

 

AGRE,in the beginning (before creation),MANO MATRAM,in the form of

 

mind-stuff (as made of mere mind-stuff),IDAM,this (world),

 

CITRAM IVA,like a picture,SARVAM IDRISAM,all this as such here,

 

VAICITRIYAM,(with its picturesque variety),PRAPAYAMASA,achieved,

 

CITRAKARAVAT,like an artist,BHAGAVAN,the lord.

 

 

 

 

 

6. asit prakrtirevedam yatha'dau yogavaibhavah

 

vyatanodatha yogivasiddhijalam jagatpatih

 

 

 

Potentially, what even as Nature remained

 

Like the psychic powers of Yoga-

 

Like a Yogi did He, the Lord of the world, work out

 

His varied psychic powers thereafter.

 

 

 

ADAU,in the beginning,YATHA YOGAVAI BHAVAHA,as

 

(in the case of) psychic powers,IDAM,this (world),PRAKRTIR EVA,as

nature(itself),

 

ASIT,remained,ATHA,thereafter,YOGI SIDDHI JALAMIVA,

 

as a yogi with his varied psychic powers,JAGAT PATIH,the lord

 

of the world,IDAM,this (world),VYATANOD,worked out.

 

 

 

 

 

7. yada'tmavidyasamkocastada'vidya bhayankaram

 

namarupatmana'tyartham vibhatiha pisacavat

 

 

 

When Self-knowledge shrinks,

 

Then prevails nescience fearful;

 

Ghost-like, taking name and form,

 

In most terrible fashion looms here.

 

 

 

YADA,when,ATMA VIDYA SAMKOCAH (BHAVATI),

 

knowledge about the self shrinks,TADA,then,AVIDYA,

 

nescience,NAMA RUPA ATMANA,taking name and form,

 

PISACAVAT,ghost-like,ATYARTHAM BHAYANKARAM,

 

in most terrible fashion,IHA,here,VIBHATI,looms

 

 

 

8. bhayankaramidam sunyam vetalanagaram yatha

 

tathaiva visvamakhilam vyakarodadbhutam vibhuh

 

 

 

Terrible and empty of content

 

Like a city infernal,

 

Even as such a marvel

 

Did the Lord make the whole universe.

 

 

 

IDAM,this (visible world),VETALA NAGARAM YATHA,like an infernal

 

city,BHAYANKAR IDAM SUNYAM (CA BHAVATI),terrible and empty

 

of content both (remain),VIBHUH,the lord,AKHILAMVISVAM,the whole

 

universe,TATHA IVA,even as such,ADBHUTAM,a marvel,VYAKAROD,made

 

 

 

 

 

9. arkadyathakramam visvam tatha naivedamatmanah

 

supteriva pradurasidyugapatsvasya viksaya

 

 

 

If from a sun in graded succession

 

This world came, such was not the case at all.

 

Presented as if out of slumber,

 

At one stroke, all came to be.

 

 

 

IDAM VISVAM,this world,ARKAD,from the sun,YATHA KRAMAM,

 

as in a gradual manner,PRADURASID (ITI CET),it is unmanifested

 

(if it should be said),TATHA NA IVA,thus not at all,

 

IDAM,this (world),ATMANAH,from the self,SVASYA,(by) its own,

 

VIKSHAYA,regard (i.e. will),SUPTEH IVA,as if from sleep,

 

YUGAPAD,at one stroke,PRADURASID,all came to be

 

 

 

 

 

10. dhanadiva vato yasmat pradurasididam jagat

 

sa brahma sa sivo visnuh sa parah sarva eva sah

 

 

 

He from whom, like a fig tree as from seed

 

Came out this world manifested -

 

He is Brahma, He is Siva and Vishnu,

 

He is the Ultimate, everything is He indeed.

 

 

 

DHANAT,from a seed,VATAH IVA,like a fig tree,YASMAT,

 

from whom, IDAM JAGAT,this world,PRADURASID,manifested,

 

SAH BRAHMA, he is brahma,SAH VISNU,he is visnu,SAH SIVA,he is siva,

 

SAH PARAH,he is the ultimate,SAH EVA SARVAH,everything is he indeed

 

 

 

 

 

II. APAVADA-DARSANAM (VISION BY NON-SUPPOSITION)

 

 

 

1. caitanyadagatam sthulasuksmatmakamidam jagat

 

asti cedsadghanam sarvam nasti cedasti cidghanam

 

 

 

This world, which is both subtle and gross,

 

And which has come to be from living consciousness,

 

If existent, then everything is existent;

 

If non-existent, then it exists as consciousness.

 

 

 

CAITANYAT,from living consciousness (i.e.the lord),AGATAM.what

 

has come to be,STHULA SUKSHMATMAKAMIDAM,which is both

 

subtle and gross,IDAM JAGAT,this world,ASTI CET,if existent,

 

SARVAM SADGHANAM ASTI,everything is existent,NASTI CET,if non-

 

existent,CIDGHANAM ASTI,it exists as consciousness

 

 

 

 

 

2. anyanna karanatkaryam asadedadato'khilam

 

asatah kathamutpattiranutpannasya ko layah

 

 

 

Other than the cause, the effect cannot be,

 

Therefore, all this is non-existent.

 

Of what is non-existent, how can there be an origin?

 

And of something unoriginated,

 

how (can there be) re-absorption?

 

 

 

KARANAT,from the cause,ANYAT,other,

 

KARYAM NA,there is no effect,ATAH,before,

 

ETAT AKHILAM,all this(universe),ASAT (BHAVATI),

 

becomes non-existent,ASATAH,of what is non-existent,

 

UTPATTIH KATHAM,how can there be origin,ANUTPANNASYA,of

 

something unoriginated,LAYAH,reabsorbtion,KAH,how can there be

 

 

 

 

 

3. yasyotpattirlayo nasti tat param brahma ne'tarat

 

utpattisca layo'stiti brahmatyatmani mayaya

 

 

 

To that which origin and dissolution is not,

 

That is none other than the ultimate Absolute.

 

(That there) is origin and re-absorption,

 

By Maya`s confusion in the Self (is supposed).

 

 

 

YASYA,to that which,UTPATTIH LAYA CA,origin and reabsorption,

 

NASTI,is not,TAT,that,PARAM BRAHMA,(than) the ultimate

 

Absolute, ITARAT NA,is none other,UTPATTIH LAYA CA,origin

 

and reabsorption, ATMANI,in the self,ASTI ITI,as present,MAYAYA,

 

by maya,BHRAMATI,by confusion (one thinks)

 

 

 

 

 

4. karanavyatiriktatvat karyasya kathamastita

 

bhavatyataha karanasya kathamasti ca nastita

 

 

 

Because of non-difference from cause,

 

The effect, how could it have being?

 

How could there be, for the same reason,

 

For the cause also, any non-being?

 

 

 

KARANA VYATIRIKA TVAT,because of non-difference (of effect) from

 

cause,KARYASYA,for the effect,KATHAM,how could there be,

 

ASTITA,(state of) being,BHAVATI,come to be,ATAH,for the same

 

reason,KARANASYA,for the cause,NASTITA CA,non-being also,

 

KATHAMASTI,how could there be?

 

 

 

 

 

5. karyatvadasato'syasti karanam nahyato jagat

 

brahmaiva tarhi sadasaditi muhyati mandadhih

 

 

 

Being an effect, and thus non-existent,

 

An existent cause there is; the world is thus not indeed.

 

On the other hand, it is the Absolute alone that is existent,

 

That dull minds mistake as non-existing.

 

 

 

KARYATVAT,because of being an effect,ASATAH,what is non-existent,

 

ASYA,for this (visible world),KARANAM,an (existent) cause,

 

ASTI,there is,ATAH,therefore (because there is a cause),

 

JAGAT,the world (which is an effect),NA HI,is not (real) indeed,

 

TARHI,on the contrary,SAT,existent (as a cause),

 

BRAHMA EVA,the absolute it is indeed,MANADHIH,dull minds,

 

ASAD ITI,as unreal,MUHYATI,mistake

 

 

 

 

 

6. ekasyaivasti satta cedanyasya'sau kva vidyate

 

satyastyamatmasrayo yadyapyasati syadasambhavaha

 

 

 

If one alone has reality,

 

Another in it how could there be?

 

If existence is posited in existence, tautology,

 

And if non-existence is so asserted, contradiction (comes).

 

 

 

EKASYA EVA,for one only (i.e. for the absolute alone which is the

 

cause)SATTA,existence,ASTI,there is,ANYASYA,for another (i.e. for

 

the world which is an effect,ASAU,in this existence,

 

KYA VIDYATE,where could it be,SATI,within what exists,

 

SATTA,existence,ASTI CET,if we say there is (existence is),

 

ATMASRAYAH,there is petitio principi, (i.e. tautology),

 

ASATI,within non-existence,(SATTA ASTI,existence is),

 

YADI,if we should say,ASAMBHAVAH,impossibility

 

(i.e. contradiction),API,also,SYAD,would come to be

 

 

 

 

 

7. vibhajya'vayavam sarvamekaikam tatra drsyate

 

cinmatramakhilam nanyaditi mayaviduragam

 

 

 

Dividing all parts one by one,

 

Everything then is seen there

 

As mind stuff alone, and as no other,

 

As thus banishing Maya (relativity) far away.

 

 

 

AVAYAVAM,parts,limbs,EKAIKAM,onebyone,SARVAM,all,VIBHAJYA,

 

Having divided,TATRA,then,AKHILAM,everything,(i.e. the whole world),

 

MAYAVIDURAGAM,banishing maya far away (i.e. without any taint

 

of maya),CINMATRA,mind stuff alone (of the stuff of absolute

 

consciousness),ANYAT NA,no other thing,ITI,thus,DRSYATE,is seen

 

 

 

 

 

8. cideva nanyadhabati citah paramato nahi

 

yacca nabhati tadasadyadasattanna bhati ca

 

 

 

Thus, it is pure mind-stuff alone that shines,

 

There is nothing, therefore, beyond pure mind-stuff at all.

 

What does not shine is not real either,

 

And what is not real does not shine indeed.

 

 

 

CIT EVA,it is even pure mind-stuff;ABHATI,shines;ANYAD NA,

 

not anything else; ATAH,therefore;CITAH PARAM,beyond pure

 

mind-stuff(i.e. other than knowledge);NAHI,nothing indeed;YAT CA,

 

that which also;NA ABHATI,does not shine;TAT,that; ASAT is non-real;

 

YAT,that which;ASAT,is non-real;TAT,that;NA BHATI CA,also does not shine indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

9. ananda evasti bhati nanyah kascidato'khilam

 

anandaghanamanyanna vina'nandena vidyate

 

 

 

High Value (bliss) alone exists and shines,

 

Therefore nothing else at all,

 

Thus, everything is of the stuff of the High Value,

 

And besides this High Value, nothing else exists.

 

 

 

ANANDA EVA ASTI,high value (bliss) alone exists,(ANANDA EVA)

 

BHATI,(it is high value alone that) shines,ANYAH KASCID NA,

 

not anything else,ATAH,therefore,AKHILAM,everything (i.e.the whole world),

 

ANANDA GHANAM,is of the stuff of this high value,ANYAT NA VIDYATE,

 

nothing else exists

 

 

 

 

 

10. sarvam hi saccidanandam neha nana'sti kincana

 

yah pasyatiha naneva mrtyormrtyam sa gacchati

 

 

 

All is indeed existence-subsistence-value,

 

Herein there is not even a little plurality.

 

He who sees (this) as pluralistic,

>From death to death he goes.

 

 

 

SARVAM SACCIDANANDAM HI,all this is indeed existence-subsistence-

 

value,IHA,herein,KINCANA,not even a little,NANA,plurality, NA ASTI,there

 

is not,IHA,in this (absolute),YAH,he,NANA IVA,as if

 

pluralistic,PASYATI,sees,SAH,he,MRITYOR,from death,MRITYAM,

 

to death,GACCHATI,he goes

 

 

 

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