Vivekachoodaamani

[nanda chandran]

The pancha kosha contd.

167. The organs of feeling and the mind – these make the third or “mental
sheath” (manomaya kosha). This mind thinks of its separation from others and
fills the other two sheaths.

169. I have told you about avidhya – know that there is not other avidhyaa
than this mind. It is the cause of all bondage. By its death everything is
destroyed; but when it is manifested, everything (the phenomenal universe)
is there.

170. In the dream state where there is no object this mind by its own power
creates everything and so also it has created all we see in jaagrat (waking
state). There is no difference between dream and waking state. Everything we
see is the creation of the mind. [It is to be noted that this equation of
the waking to the dream state as the same is one of the reasons for
disputing the authenticity of Vivekachoodaamani as a work of Shankara, as in
his Brahma Sutra Baashyam, Shankara states that waking and dream represent
two different levels of unreality. But it is to be noted that the latter
stance as in the BSB is true only when evaluating the two states together
from their own perspective – but when you view the two states from the
standpoint of the atman both are considered to be unreal and the creation of
the mind. So IMO there’s no contradiction].

172. As the wind creates the clouds and again destroys them, so this bondage
is the creation of the mind and it is the mind also that destroys that
bondage.

174, Therefore the mind is the case of both bondage and the release of
individuals. Impure rajas is the cause of bondage and pure sattva free from
rajas is the cause of release.

175. By the increase of viveka (discrimination) and vairaagya (renunciation)
the mind becomes purified and is ready for liberation. Therefore one who is
intelligent and desirous of liberation should have these two qualities well
established in him.

178. Consciousness is never touched by anything; yet with this body, senses,
praanas, qualities and all these things, the mind deludes the consciousness
and creates for him (the enjoyer) the knowledge that “I am” – the knowledge
of “me” and “mine” and deludes him again and again; and he (the jiva) enjoys
or suffers.

179. Identification with the unreal is the cause of the world for the
Purusha. The mind is the creator of this identification of the soul with the
unreal body. He who is without discrimination and full of rajas and tamas –
his mind creates bondage and he who is in the sattva quality, his mind
cannot create bondage.

180. Therefore the sages who know the reality of things, call this mind the
cause of all ignorance, by which the whole universe is driven as the wind
drives the clouds.


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