Contents
Shri Sankara's Gita Bhashya
(Sri Sankaracharya's Commentary on the Gita)
CHAPTER -18
|
|
Objection:- As with the Śruti which enjoins works, the Sruti which teaches Brahma-vidyā can also cease to be authorita tive (in the absolute sense). Reply:- Not so; for there is no concept that can annul Brahma-vidyā. In the manner that the conception of self in the aggregate of the body etc. is annihilated when the Self (in its true form) is comprehended from the Sruti which teaches Brahmavidyā, there is nothing whatever which can at any time or in any manner set aside this comprehension of the Self in oneself; for that perception is never separated from the result[1], just as fire is (itself) heat and luminosity. Moreover it is not correct to say that the Śruti enjoining works becomes unauthoritative; since, by restraining the earlier activities one after another and thereby bringing into existence newer and newer activities, its purpose is to create the tendency to turn to-wards the inner Self[2]. Though the means may be illusory, still it is true (as the means) since the end is true, as in the case of arthavSdas, which are explanatory statements subsidiary to a main injunction. Even in the ordinary ways of the world, when a child or an insane person is to be induced to drink milk, we find that he is told (by way of inducement) that thereby his hair will grow, and so on. And, they (the Śrutis enjoining karma) arc authorities by themselves for persons in different circumstances[3], in the same way that pratyaksa and other pramānas. based on attachment to the body, arc authoritative prior to (the dawn of) the Knowledge of the Self. |
 |
References and Context
- ↑ The removal of avklyā is the result of Brahma-vidyā. (A)
- ↑ By restraining the manifestations of natural (animal) activity, which have been functioning from time without beginning, the injunctions of Śruti in the Ka.nui-kānda bring about activities of the supernatural kind, such as the performance of sacrifices, which, through the purification of the mind, produce the tendency to turn towards the Self within; thus, as serving to lead step by step to the Knowledge of the inner Self, the injunctions of Śruji with regard to action arc truly authoritative. (Ā)
- ↑ 'Different circumstances' refers to the state prior to the dawn of Selfknowledge; for those in that state, the Śnitis enjoining works are directly (i.e. independently of nralima-vulyā) authoritative as revealing the connection (of those works with their results, which cannot otherwise be known. (A)