With complete stillness of mind, samsara will disappear

[Guest guest]

ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE][Originally

Sri Shankaracharya and other great Sages hadwritten several works like the commentary on the Vedanta Sutrasand thus furnished the methods for those engaged in Self enquiryto accomplish their purpose.From those, Sri Karapatra Swami later condensed thesalient

points

into

Sanskrit

verse

in

a

work

of

twelve

chapters,called Sri Advaita

Bodha Deepika.Still later, some great man seems to have translated thisinto Tamil prose. For some unknown reasons only some eightchapters

of

the

same

are

found

published.]THE MEANS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT17. Disciple: Now that samsara has fallen to the lot of the Self,how can it be got rid of?Master: With complete stillness of mind, samsara will disappearroot and branch. Otherwise there will be no end to samsara,even in millions of aeons (Kalpakotikala).18. D.: Cannot samsara be got rid of by any means otherthan making the mind still?M.: Absolutely by no other means; neither the Vedas, northe shastras nor austerities, nor karma, nor vows, nor gifts, norrecital of scriptures of mystic formulae (mantras), nor worship,nor anything else, can undo the samsara. Only stillness of mindcan accomplish the end and nothing else.19. D.: The scriptures declare that only Knowledge cando it. How then do you say that stillness of the mind puts anend to samsara?M.: What is variously described as Knowledge, Liberation,etc., in the scriptures, is but stillness of mind.D.: Has any one said so before?20-27. M.: Sri Vasishta had said: When by practice themind stands still, all illusions of samsara disappear, root andbranch. Just as when the ocean of milk was churned for itsnectar, it was all rough, but became still and clear after thechurn (viz., mount Mandara) was taken out, so also the mindbecoming still, the samsara falls to eternal rest.