Svarupanusandhanam: Contemplation on the Self’s Nature — Part 4
Svarupanusandhanam: Contemplation on the Self’s Nature — Part 3
yadajñānato bhāti viśvaṁ samastaṁ
vinaṣṭaṁ ca sadyo yadātmaprabodhe,
manovāgatītaṁ viśuddhaṁ vimuktaṁ
paraṁ brahma nityaṁ tadevāhamasmi. || 4 ||
Aham asmi, I am; tad eva, that verily; nityam param brahma, eternal supreme Brahman; yadajñānataḥ, due to the ignorance of which; samastam viśvam, entire world; bhāti, appears. On ātmaprabodhe, on gaining the Self-knowledge; which is manovāgatīta, beyond the mind; the universe vinaṣṭam, ends; sadyaḥ, at once. How? When the dreamer wakes up, he realises his nature different from being the dreamer and therefore the dreaming world that he cognised as true at the time of dreaming is realised to be completely false. The dreaming world ends. Just like that, on waking up to one’s true nature of being that verily eternal supreme Brahman, beyond the instruments of body, mind and intellect, the waking world ends. With the end of the waking world, the individuality of oneself and plurality of the world ends. He thus becomes viśuddham, pure; and becomes vimuktam, ever-liberated, from the sense of individuality, which is the cause of perceiving the plurality of the world, which is nothing but pervaded by that One omnipresent, omniscient Self in whose just mere presence everything happens. The Ishavasya Upanishad begins with the daring truth that all of this that we perceive moving and not moving, is enveloped by Lord Himself (who is of the nature of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss). Giving up the plurality and seeing all as the Lord Himself (=Self, Tat Tvam Asi), in all, rejoice (in the Self). Covet no wealth of man, for everything belongs to the Lord. And you are one with the Lord without a second. When such plurality ends, where is the waking world that gives rise to the waves of joys and sorrows?
How to come to know the Self? How does the aham brahmavirtti, arise? How to come to the understanding of that one Self? Adi Shankara takes it up in the fifth verse.
