Vivekachudamani - Post 18

 Verse 12  

 

सम्यग्विचारतः सिद्धा रज्जुतत्त्वावधारणा ।
भ्रान्तोदितमहासर्पभयदुःखविनाशिनी ॥ १२ ॥

 

samyagvicārataḥ siddhā rajjutattvāvadhāraṇā |
bhrāntoditamahāsarpabhayaduḥkhavināśinī || 12 ||

 

(The fear and sorrow created by the delusory serpent on the rope can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope which is available for recognition only through steady and balanced thinking) 

 

रजजसु पवय दार् means a clear knowledge of rope; rajju means rope; it is the satvam; sarvam means the substratum of the false snake; 

 

Suppose if one says it may be rope and somebody asks go and touch it; he will say: why to take risk. Similarly if we say the world is Brahman; it is one thing. If we say the world may be Brahman; that is not enough.

 

And how did the snake come into existence? Not that there was a mother snake; and it gave birth to smaller snakes; it is not like that; this snake how did come; purely because of rope-ignorance. 

Therefore he says Bhrantodita. Bhranthihi means the error; erroneous perception; uditha means born. So therefore the clear knowledge of rope is the destroyer of the fear born out of the snake which is born out of an erroneous perception. In short, knowledge alone will destroy this particular fear.

 

It is never possible that one who has seen the rope as a rope will ever have the fear and sorrow of a snakebite. But in the gathering darkness of dusk, a traveller mistakes an innocent rope to be a snake. The serpent delusion is created in the mind of the traveller because of his ignorance of the rope-reality. 

 

Having thus been bitten by a delusory serpent, the individual, so long as he is under the delusion, suffers the agony of a snakebite and, if left alone, will exhibit symptoms of blood poisoning too, but the traveller is advised to make an enquiry into his delusion. 

 

In vedanta, this example is often quoted to make the student understand how the names and forms created through the ignorance of Reality can end with the rediscovery of the Truth underlying them. 

 

However great a devotee he may be; you might have the mantropadesah, but when rajju sarpa comes, what you need is to intelligently bring the torch and see it properly. The torch is called the sastra pramaṇam. 

 

Take the sastra pramaṇam torch. Knowledge is attained through only proper enquiry. Proper enquiry means what, with sastra torchlight; that is why "proper" is put. So then alone this knowledge will come and the knowledge alone will destroy the bhayaṁ.

 

Similarly if the samsara bhayam should go; atma jnanam should come; and if atma jnanam should come, vichara is a must.

 

Till the time we keep thinking about snake, how much ever we may try to negate the existence of snake, the fear will never go. Only upon discovering the existence of rope, the delusion of snake will go.

 

Similarly, Sankara says, as long as you think that Brahman may be the reality, you won’t be able to experience Brahman. Only when you are convinced through the stage of mananam that “Only Brahman exists”, then, in nidhidhyasanam, there is hope for you to experience Brahman as pure awareness / consciousness.

 

 

Love.