Without eliminating his enemies and without bringing the entire land of his kingdom under his sway, by merely repeating I am the emperor ', one cannot become an emperor. (64)
Even God is transferring the self-knowledge to us only by one method; what is that; the upaṇiṣadic words. And therefore remember, words are extremely important; but what Sankara says is words are important as a means but words are not ends in themselves.
Therefore do not hang on to words; do not hang on to books which are only containers of words; and what should you do? Give sufficient importance to the words as a means but do not give it more importance than that. From the words you have to come to what; from the śabda, the sādhanām, you will have to come to the artha, which is the sādhyam.
But generally what happens? in the case of seekers is: there are two extremes. One extreme is a person says knowledge is important, words are not important; so they do not study the śāstra itself. This is one extreme. Those who claim knowledge is important, words are not going to give liberation; therefore I would not go a guru; I would not study scriptures, etc. and I would do meditation; this is one idiot.
So without words coming from the guru; if the means is not there; how can a person get the knowledge? Therefore one extreme is what; those people who reject the words totally.
And there is another extreme group; those who hang on the words and words and words, study the upaṇiṣads by heart; bhāṣyams by heart; there are people who tudy the sub-commentaries byheart; all that is not necessary; but they hang on to the words and continue to be a samsāri; that means what; another extreme hanging on to words.
Who is the right person? The one who does not totally reject the scriptures and the one who does not hang on to the words of the scriptures, but the one who uses the word, grasps the meaning and drops the words.
In this verse, the Acharya is throwing a flood of light on the previous declaration. By an apt example, he is trying to make us understand that by mere verbal repetition nothing will be accomplished. A fool who, without annihilating his enemies and without bringing with his own might and power, all the provinces under his sway, just repeats that he is the emperor, can never become one for all his loud claims.
Certain necessary conditions must be fulfilled before he can hope to gain the scepter and the crown and be recognized as the emperor. An emperor has no enemies within his own empire and everyone living in his empire is directly under his will and command. If these conditions are accomplished, he need not even announce or declare that he is the emperor, the world will do it for him.
Similarly, if a seeker has successfully destroyed all his inner enemies of desires and thoughts, physical demands, mental appetites and intellectual wanderings and if he has established mastery over the vast province of the waking, dream and deep sleep states of consciousness, he need not thereafter repeat 'I am Brahman'. For every cell in him, every thought and every idea that rises in him will sing in chorus his sovereignty overall, always and in all conditions.
The idea that man's self-effort in the right direction alone can make him rediscover for himself the spiritual essence in him to be divine and all-powerful, is vividly brought out by the following exquisite verse, pregnant with suggestion, rich in melody, perfect in flow and rhythm.
Love
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