hastAmalakIyam with bhAshyam

Self — as clear as a gooseberry in the palm — with explanation (includes all my intellectual defects!)

by that knowledge everything is known to be in supreme self
(I) bow down to that eternal-knowledge-bliss-unborn-imperishable

by what ignorance the duality arises; knowledge removes it (the duality)
mistaking a rope for a snake and realizing; that (I) bow down to supreme lord

by that light of teaching, our self-consciousness enlightens
(I) bow down to that true guru who has removed self-ignorance like Sun

Here all the living beings seeking pleasure and rejecting pain engage in gaining pleasure and avoiding pain. In those rarely one accepts some of the pain can’t be avoided and the pleasure derived from objects of the world is essentially pain alone; by own effort to recover the self from repeated pleasure-pain cycles becomes dispassionate and establishes in spiritual practice. For such a seeker to establish in self-knowledge and remove the self-ignorance, Acharya starts teaching:

The functions of mind etc., and eye etc., are just instrumental
having given-up all these instrumentality, just like in the space,
Sun just as instrumental in all activities of the world; just like that
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 1 —

mind, intellect, ego-sense, memory are four well known limbs of subtle internal instrument generally known as Mind. Five sense organs — eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin are the external instruments of deriving knowledge about things. All these internal and external instruments of knowledge have their own domains of operation. What is instrumental in making all these instruments perform their functions is untouched by all these, just like the Sun in the sky which makes all the activities happen here on the Earth through the radiation of light and heat naturally. Even though Sun is assumed to have the “form” the enlightening ability of the Sun is referred to as the Self which has no specific “form”. Only in its presence like the pure space represented by the word “witness” — ravi, everything assumes a form and performs the functions.

Why this eternally available formless form enables functions of other instruments is being said:

As the heat is natural in fire, the Self is eternal knowledge
mind etc., and eye etc., are by nature not the form of knowledge
by coming under and enabled by changeless single Self, they function
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 2 —

What is eternal of the knowledge? what is generated is lost and is not eternal. Anything perceived of temporary is not eternal knowledge. Hence, the knowledge is the very natural ability to perceive rather than what is perceived. As the heat is very nature of fire, the knowledge is the very nature of Self. There is no duality of Self and the Consciousness or Awareness which is natural to it. That is why it is emphasized as single Self. This nature is changeless. All changes that are observed through this power are temporary but the knowledge is neither being gained nor being lost with different objective impressions collected and processed by eye etc., and mind etc.,

This eternal Self is ever the cause and enabler of the functions of all other instruments. If not enabled by the Self, none of the functions are possible and all that happens is under the supervision or witnessing capacity of the Self alone.

So, this Self’s eternally unified nature contradicts with individual experience of pleasure and pain individually. To answer this:

reflected face that appears in the mirror, in reality
is non-different from the face that is being reflected
in the same way the self reflected in the intellect as individual
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 3—

By the distinction of the reflecting surface, the reflection appears distinctly and limited by the reflector but in essence it does not exist beyond the original. The supreme Self alone is termed as the individual being as the reflected identity.

As the mirror is lost, the image is lost and
the original remains without any transformation
in the same way when decoupled with intellect, that remains
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 4 —

When the mirror is removed, the image is lost and merged back safely in the original beyond all distinctions the individuality of jeeva is only temporary as long as it is coupled with the instruments like intellect and limited by them. Misidentification with the reflection as “i am” is known as bondage.

Some think the “intellect” itself as self — to avoid such interpretation:

decoupled from mind etc., and eye etc., on its own, that
mind etc., and eye etc., of the mind etc., and eye etc.,
transcending the abilities of mind etc., and the eye etc.,
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 5 —

distinct from the mind, it is the mind of the mind; distinct from eye, it is the eye of the eye and so on… not coming within the scope of any of internal and external instruments it remains as eternal. So, if it is beyond the scope of all instruments, then how to realize it?

That alone is the self-effulgent ever pure consciousness
illuminating multitude of intellects, just like multiple
reflections of one Sun seen in the waters filled in multiple pots
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 6 —

As one Sun appearing as multitude of reflections in individual pots of intellects, by first developing the required prerequisites of internal and external sense control and by seeking the source of such pure illumination it becomes directly evident to the seeker.

Now it may be asked that how the one supreme consciousness simultaneously enables multitude of individuals:

just like multiple individuals see the respective objects
simultaneously when Sun rises and not sequentially one by one
multitude of intellects function in the presence of One Self
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. —7—

Sun simultaneously illuminates multiple individuals and they intern see multiple objects based on their ability to view. Some may say that it is just the Sun and where is the Self coming into the picture? So:

By the effulgence of the globe of Sun, all the forms
are shown to the eye, but not in the absence of that light
The light is alone brings the power of vision to the eye (as Self)
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. —8—

External brightness that makes the forms visible and the internal brightness that shines as the ability of vision in the eye, both are of the Self alone. That Self is beyond the distinction of internal and external or presence and absence or static or dynamic. How?

As one Sun’s reflection appears in several moving and
stable water bodies and appears to move and not move;
what moves is the One unmoving Self in all moving minds
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 9 —

What is appearing to move or not move is not the source Self. It is seen as merged in the reflecting medium. By this reason alone all the confusion arises. Why?

Strongly obstructed vision due to dark cloud, makes one feel
the Sun is covered; a fool thinks, Sun has no brightness!
in the same way the foolish vision thinks that the self is bound
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 10—

What is obstructed by the dark cloud is our vision, not the brightness of the Sun. The conclusion derived is the cloud can cover the Sun, which is wrong. In similar fashion by bringing the space like Self into the domain of individual experience, one thinks it is bound and limited. This kind of thinking technically known as “Avidya”

all the things are held by one universal field
even then none of them able to touch it
just like space is ever pure and untouched
That eternally available formless knowledge, I am that Self. — 11 —

There is one that holds and covers everything known as universe of all “things” — that existence is untouched by coming and going of things in it. An example shown is the relation between the space and matter/energy in gross sense. Now concluding:

color of a pure crystal is different based on the color of the container;
in the same way the distinction of the intellect appears as difference in Self
just as the movement of water makes the moon to appear moving in it
in the same way the movement in intellect is seen as yours Oh VishNu! — 12 —

Vishnu is the one who has filled the whole of the universal field, known to be supreme Self for the purpose of explaining all the duality. The movement seen is known to be only apparent and not real movement. But it appears due to the mistaken vision bringing the supreme into the appearance.

Thus the free flow translation (along with my intellectual defects) of https://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/prakarana/hastamalakiya-bhashya in my own words comes to an end.

Om tat sat

The story behind this:

There is a well learned and rich brahmaNa known as prabhAkara in the village of Sri Bali. He had a son. Even after performing the upanayana the boy will neither learn nor play. He remain aloof of all activities of the world like a dumb one. Once Sankara bhagavatpAda Acharya happens to visit this village.

With a hope that Acharya gives some solution to the problem of his son, prabhAkara brings the boy to Acharya and requests for his grace. Acharya turns to the boy and asks “Who are you?”

Answer for the question are the 12 verses above. Deeply impressed by the clarity of the content, Acharya looks with his divine vision into the past of the boy. At the age of 2, the boy’s mother took the boy along to the bank of a river for bath. Leaving the boy with a sage on the bank of the river, mother goes to take a dip in the river. The sage goes into samAdhi and boy drowns in the river by the time mother comes back. Mother cries at the still body of the boy, which brings the sage back to the world from his samAdhi. Looking at the sorrow of the mother, sage gives up the current body and enters the body of the boy. As the soul animating the body of the boy is a realized sage, the boy is indifferent to the worldly matters.

Giving the saintly name “hasta+amalaka = hastAmalaka” to the boy, the boy is taken as a disciple of Acharya. But Acharya never assigned any work to this disciple keeping his state of establishment of higher consciousness. Instead, referring hastAmalaka as Acharya, bhagavan Sankara wrote a bhAshya to these 12 verses.

This prakaraNa i.e., a work of spirituality takes a prominent place in the literature of advaita vedAnta which continues to inspire several seekers like me even in this current age.

My Notes:

The 12 number belongs to Sun and reference to Sun and Moon and their reflections in water bodies; and bringing in the lord of cosmic waters — nArAyaNa as vishNu at the end of it makes it a stotra of daily recitation to the serious seekers of Self-Realization.

Another (better) translation can be found on Sanskrit Documents website: https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/hastasans.pdf