Saddarsanam -4

(Verses 16 to 20)

Verse 16

Tad-yusmador-asmadi sampratistha tasmin vinaste'smadi mula-bodhat।
Tad-yusmad-asman-mati-varjitaika sthitir-jvalanti sahajatmanah syat ॥

“That” and “you” have “I” for a firm basis. Upon the destruction of that “I” from the knowledge of their source, the one state without the “that,” “you,” and “I” notion, the natural state of oneself will emerge shining.

In grammar we study about the first person as ‘I’, second person as ‘You’ and the third person as ‘He, She, That’.  The first person ‘I’ is the basis of ‘You, He, She, That’.  The concept of ‘You, He, She, That’ are only in reference to ‘I’. The first person ‘I’ is the mind or ego, the feeling ‘I am this body’, the knowing subject and the second and third persons are the many objects known by this first person, ‘I’.  These second and third persons, the known objects seemingly exist only if the first person, the knowing subject seemingly exists.  When one enquires into the origin of ‘I’ (‘Who am I’ enquiry) the first person will be found to be truly nonexistent, and hence the second and third persons known by it will cease to exist. The state which remains after all the three persons have thus ceased to exist, alone is the true state of Self, one’s own real nature, which shines as one undivided Whole, devoid of both the knowing subject and the known objects.  When the unreal first person is found to be non-existent as a first person or individual, the ever-existing Self, which is the sole Reality underlying the first person, alone will remain shining.

Verse 17

Bhutaṃ bhavisyac-ca bhavat-svakale tad-vartamanasya vihaya tattvam।
Hasya na kim syad gata-bhavi-carca vinaika-samkhyam gananeva loke ॥

The past and the future are the present in their own time. Relinquishing the Truth of the present, will not discussion on the past and future be laughable, like counting without the number one in the world?

Time is known to one as past, present and future.  It is only with reference to the present other times are called either past or future.  So past and future can seemingly exist only if the present seemingly exists.  If one closely scrutinizes the present moment in order to know ‘What exactly is it that is called the present?’, the present as such will be found to be truly non-existent.  For If we try to attend to the exact present moment, even one millionth of this so-called present moment will be found to be either past or future.  If we do not attend even to such subtlest past and future moments, and if we try to know what exists between those subtle past and future moments, we will find that there exists no such thing as the present moment.  And hence the past and future will also cease to exist.  When the unreal snake is found to be non-existent as a snake, the ever-existing rope, which is the sole reality underlying that snake, alone will remain shining.  Similarly, when the unreal present time is found to be non-existent as a time, the ever-existing Self, which is the sole reality underlying the present time, alone will remain shining.   So the present has both a real aspect and an unreal aspect.  If the present is experienced as one’s mere being, ‘I am’, devoid of all thoughts, it is real; but if the same present is experienced as one of the three times in which thoughts of the other two times (past and future) occur, it is unreal.  So the truth about the present is it is the timeless Consciousness localized as finite ‘present’ because of ahamkara which is caused by dehabhimana.   When dehabhimana is gone, there is no present, and past and future are gone,   Athma appers as kala triam through the body.  Leaving aside Athma jnanam, discussion on future and past will be a joke like trying to count things without knowing number ‘one’, declares Maharishi.

Verse 18

Kva bhati dik-kala-katha vina'sman dik-kala-lileha vapur-vayam cet।
Na kvapi bhamo na kadapi bhamo vayam tu sarvatra sada ca bhamah ॥

Where shines talk of space and time without us? If we are the body, then there will be the play of space and time.   Nowhere do we shine.  At no time do we appear. But  everywhere and always do we shine.

The conception of place exists only with reference to the first person, ‘I’, whom one always feels to be ‘here’, while the conception of time exists only with reference to the present moment, which one always feels to be ‘now’. But by scrutinizing either the truth of the first person or the truth of the present moment, both the first person and the present moment (which are twin conceptions that always exist side by side) will be found to be non-existent as such, and hence the conceptions of time and place will cease to exist. Thus one will realize that one is not the body, which is bound by time and place, but is only the real Self, which is devoid of time and place, and which is the sole reality underlying the different times ‘now’, ‘then’ and always’, and the different places such as 'here’, ‘there’ and ‘everywhere’. The original ‘I’ is called Athma and One as Athma exists everywhere, at all times,    There is no time at which it doesn’t exist and there is no place where it doesn’t exist. 

Verse 19 

Dehatma-bhave jna-jadau samanau ekasya dehe hrdi dipta athma।
Akramya deham ca jagac-ca purnah parasya meyam tanu-matram-athma ॥

In the state of oneself being the body the wise and the ignorant are the same. For one, in the body, in the heart, the Self illumines, encompassing the body and the universe, in perfect fullness.  For the other, the Self is discernible only as the body.

In this verse an ignorant person refers to one who does not know his true nature, an ajjnani.  An ajjnani feels ‘the body alone is ‘I’; whereas the Jnani (one who knows and abides as Self) feels ‘the body is also I’.  That is, since the Jnani clearly knows that Self alone exists, and that it shines without any limit, he knows that if at all there is any such thing as the body, it cannot be other than ‘I’, the real Self for if the body were to exist as other than Self, that would set a limitation upon the limitless nature of Self.  So in terms of having physical limitation due to body the experience of both Jnani and ajjnani is the same.  But Jnani does not attribute the limitation to himself because he knows that belongs to the objective body and not to his subjective Self.  As Swami Paramarthananda observes “ ‘I am limited’ experience is common to both Jnani and ajjnani; but ‘I am limited’ is a fact (sathyam) for ajjnani, while ‘I am limited’ is a fiction (mithya) for Jnani. 

Verse 20

Ajnasya vijnasya ca visvam-asti purvasya drsyam jagad-eva satyam।
Parasya drsyasraya-bhutam-ekam satyam prapurnam pravibhaty-arupam ॥

For the ignorant and for the wise, the universe is (exists).  For the former, the seen universe alone is real.   For the other, the One that has become the substratum of the seen, the full, the formless Truth, shines.

An ajjnani perceives the universe in front of him. So does a jnani.  For the ajjnani, the perceived world of names and forms itself is Sathyam.  For the Jnani, the non-dual Consciousness, which is the adhishtanam for the objective inert Universe seen, alone is Sathyam.  The Consciousness, which is all-pervading, formless and adhishtanam for all that is seen and experienced is the Real Truth.  Maharishi has stated the same idea differently in verse 6 where he said “The way one looks at the world is basically dependant on the way one looks at oneself.”  

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