Gita Rahasya -Tilak 243

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER IX THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF Therefore, this state of the mind cannot be described by one person to another person ; because, it is dear that immediately on uttering the word 'another', this state of mind is destroyed, and the man returns from the advaita (non-dual) into the dvaita (dual). Nay, it is even difficult for anybody to say that he himself has. experienced this state of mind 1 Because, as soon as you utter the word ' I’, there arises in the mind the idea of a difference from others, and such an idea is obstructive to the realisation of the identity between this Brahman and the Atman. It is for this reason that Yajnavalkya has described this state of beati- tude in the Brhadaranyaka as follows : — "yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati tad itara itaram pasyati jighrati srnoti vijanati yatra tvasya sarvam atmaivabhut tat kena kam pasyet ….jighret srnuyat vijaniyat I...ijnataram are kena vijaniyat I etavad are khalu, amrtatvam iti. I i. e., "so long as- the duality of the Observer and the observed existed, the one was seeing the other, smelling the other, hearing the other, and knowing the other ; but when everything assumes the form of the Atman, (that is, when there no more remains the- difference between oneself and another), then, who is to see, smell, hear or know whom ? man I how can there be another one to know him who is himself the Knower ? " . When everybody is in this way merged in the Atman or in the Brahman, or becomes atmabhuta or brahmabhuta, the doubles of pain and happiness, or fear, lamentation etc. cease to exist (Isa. 7) ; because, in order that one should feel fear, or lament, the one to be feared or lamented must be different from oneself, and there is no room for a difference of this kind, when one has realised the identity of the Brahman and the Atman. This state of being free from pain, lamentation etc. is called the 'anandamaya' state (the beatific state) ; and, it is stated in the Taittiriya Upanisad, that this ananda (joy or beatitude) is Brahman . But, even this description is not perfect ; because, where does the experiencer of this beatitude now remain any more ? It is, therefore, stated in the Brhadaranyakopanisad that Self- beatitude (atmananda) is something by far stranger than ordinary joy . Having regard to this insufficiency of the word 'ananda' (beatitude), which occurs in the description of the Brahman, the person who has realised the Brahman (brahma-vetta) is, in some other places, described only as "brahma bhavati ya evam veda" or "brahma veda brahmaiva bhavati" "he, who has realised the Brahman, has become the Brahman", that is to say, omitting the word 'ananda', from the description. In the same way as, after a lump of salt has been dissolved in water, the difference that one part of the water is saltish and another of it is not saltish does not remain, so also, once a man has realised the identity of the Brahman and the Atman, everything becomes merged in the Brahman.