mahAvAkyaratnAvaliH

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*Translation of mahAvAkyas- No.4*

 

15. AtmAnam cet vijAnIyAt ayam asmIti pUrushaH, kim icchan kasya kAmAya

SarIram anu samjvaret—bRhad. up. 4.4.12-

 

pUrushaH- A man, AtmAnam- the supreme Self, ayam asmi iti- as I am this,

vijAnIyAt cet- if he knows, kim icchan- desiring what, kasya kAmAya- for

whose sake, SarIram anu- in the wake of the body, samjvaret- would be

afflicted?

 

If a man realizes that he is the Self (brahman ), then desiring what and for

whose sake will he suffer in the wake of the body?

 

Sri Sankara says that the word 'if' indicates that persons who acquire

Self-knowledge are very rare. Once a person has realized that he is brahman,

there is nothing different from him which he would desire. Every one desires

only what he considers to be different from himself and which he does not

have. An unenlightened person may desire to get some thing for his wife,

son, etc., but for a jnAni there is no one separate from himself and so such

desires too cannot arise. An ordinary person exerts his body for the

fulfillment of desire and suffers because of such exertion. But a jnAni does

not exert himself because he has no desires at all. Even if he engages

himself in some action for the benefit of the world, he does not suffer

thereby because he has no identification with his body.

 

Chapter 7 of Panchadasi is a commentary on this mantra. A summary of this

chapter may be seen at

 

www.geocities.com/snsastri/panchadasi-chapter-7.html

 

 

 

16. tameva dhIro vijnAya prajnAm kurvIta brAhmaNaH. na anudhyAyAt bahUn

SabdAn vAco viglApanam hi tat- bRhad. up. 4.4.21.

 

dhIraH brAhmaNaH- The intelligent aspirant after brahman, tam eva vijnAya-

knowing about the Self alone, prajnAm kurvIta- should strive for

realization, bahUn SabdAn- many words, na anudhyAyAt- should not keep

thinking of, tat hi- that indeed, vAcaH- for the vocal organ, viglApanam-

very fatiguing.

 

The intelligent aspirant after brahman, knowing about the Self alone, should

strive for realization. He should not go on merely thinking about (and

uttering) many words, for that is fatiguing to the vocal organ.

 

(In all these translations I am going by the meaning of words as given by

Sri Sankara in his bhAshya. In many cases these may be different from the

dictionary meaning).

 

Sri Sankara says in his bhAshya on this mantra:--

 

The intelligent spiritual aspirant, after knowing about the Self from the

teacher and from the scriptures, should strive for realization by

cultivating renunciation, calmness, self-control, withdrawal of the senses

from sense-objects, fortitude and concentration. The restriction on thinking

of too many words implies that a few words dealing exclusively with the

nature of the Self should be meditated on. Thinking of too many words is

fatiguing to the organ of speech and does not help in achieving the ultimate

goal. (Obviously 'thinking' here includes uttering the words loudly because

mere thinking cannot strain the vocal organs. We have to go by the substance

and not interpret the words literally).

 

S.N.Sastri

 

(To be contd)