Gita Rahasya -Tilak 259

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER IX THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF The same doctrines of Non-dualistic Vedanta have been mentioned in the Gita ; and an ancient poet has summarised the Non-Dualistic Vedanta philosophy very concisely as follows : — slokardhena pravaksyami yad uktam granthakotibhih I brahma satyam jagan mithya jivo brahmaiva naparah II that is, "I will explain in half a stanza the summary of a million books— (1) the Brahman is Real, (2) the world (jagat )' that is, all the Names and Forms in the world, are mithya, or perishable, and (3) the Atman of a man and the Brahman are- fundamentally ONE and the same, and not two. " If anybody does nob appreciate the word 'mithya' in this stanza, he is quite welcome to read the third section of the stanza as 'brahmamrtam jagat satyam consistently with the Brhadaranyakopanisad;- thereby, the purport does not change at all as has been stated' before. Nevertheless, many Vedantists enter into a fruitless discussion as to whether the invisible but eternal Fundamental Element of the visible world, in the shape of the Brahman,, should be called sat (satya) or asat (asatya=anrta). I shall, therefore, explain here concisely what the underlying principle in this discussion, is. This discussion has come into existence- because the word sat or satya has two different meanings ; and if one first carefully considers in what meaning the word sat has been used by any particular person, no confusion will arise ; because, everybody accepts the -"'distinction that though- the Brahman is invisible, it is Real , and that though the Name-d and Form-ed Cosmos is visible, yet, it is ever-changing. The ordinary meaning of the word sat or satya is : (1) that which is, at the moment, actually visible to the eyes, that is to say, perceptible (whether this visit's appearance of it,, does or does not change to-morrow) ; and the other meaning of that word is : (2) that of which the nature always remains the same, and never changes, notwithstanding that it is invisible- to the eyes, i e., imperceptible. Those who accept the first meaning say, that the Name-d and Form-ed world which is. visible to the eyes is satya (visible) and that the Parabrahman is just the opposite, that is, it is not visible to the eyes and therefore, asat or asatya (invisible). For instance, in the Taittiriyopanisad, the visible world has been called 'sat', and that which is beyond the visible world, has been called ' tyat ' (THAT, that is, which is beyond) or 'anrta ' (invisible to the eyes) ; and the Brahman is described by saying that that substance which was in existence at the commencement of the world has bacoma two-fold as follows:— "sacca tyaccabhavat I niruktam caniruktam ca I nilayanam canilayanam ca I vijnanam cavijnanam ca I satyam canrtam ca I" that is: "It became " sat (visible to the eyes) and That (which is beyond) ; describable and indescribable; dependant and independent; known and unknown (unknowable) ; and real (visible) and invisible ". But though the Brahman has in this way been described as ' anrta ', the word anrta does not mean false or unreal ; but later on, in the Taittiriyopanisad itself, it is stated that " this anrta (invisible) Brahman is the ' pratistha ' (support) of the world, that it does not depend on anything else, and that he who has realised this need not fear anything".