Upadesha sahasri

[Vidyasankar]

>The third chapter is only a repitition of the conclusions arrived in the
>earlier chapter - and it doesn't seem to be part of the teacher-student
>dialogue. It seems to be a "summing up" by the author.

Yes, it is not part of the dialogue, but it is not quite a summing up of
the earlier two chapters either. The chapters containing the dialogue
encapsulate the teaching process, while the third chapter illustrates the
nididhyAsana stage, which comes afterwards.

>But in the end of the second chapter, which is the dialogue between the
>student and the teacher, both the student and teach affirm that the
student
>has attained brahmavidhya by understanding the exposition of brahma vidhya
>by the teacher.

Again, not quite. The chapter is called avagati-prakaraNa. avagati
means "guessing, anticipating, conceiving." The teacher anticipates the
doubts of the disciple and answers them; the disciple raises more doubts
and the teacher replies and so on.

At the end, the disciple arrives at a conclusion about the eternal nature
of the kUTastha and about the nature of the waking and dreaming states.
This is based on intellectual reasoning, subject to the operation of the
buddhi. The teacher says that through this reasoning the disciple has now
become free from the sorrows of the waking and dreaming states. It is not
yet fully extolled as the final liberation.

Vidyasankar