For a student seeking Liberation, infatuation with the body and so on, is a 'tragic death'. He who has totally conquered this attachment deserves the state of Liberation. (85)
To him who is aspiring to rise above the fascination of the sense organs for the sense objects and the calamitous confusions of emotions and thoughts, it is indeed a dire tragedy, if he were to allow himself to be tempted, by the fields of immediate pleasures which the body experiences in the midst of objects.
Sankara emphasizes that deha abhimana is equal to spiritual death. So mohaha eva mahamr ̥ tyu; here mohaḥ means deha abhimanaḥ, is not ordinary mr ̥ tyuḥ; but mahā mr ̥ tyuḥ; because it leads to spiritual death of a person; because he will not be allowed to attain spiritual knowledge.
For a materialistic person, this discussion is not relevant at all; because he does not believe in spirit or Brahman or atman or heaven or hell and nothing; he leads an animalistic life; his only belief is that as long as he lives, he should enjoy maximum. To such a materialistic person, we have nothing to talk; but if a person is a spiritual seeker, we would like to give him a statutory warning; that deha abhimana is spiritual death.
Therefore, the more abhimana a person has, the greater is the fear and frightened man dies several times and therefore, even in that sense, it is figurative death; whereas in spiritual sense also, it is death because, he dies to his original spiritual nature, because of his pre- occupation with the external body.
Suppose a person conquers this delusion by his clarity of understanding that the body is a medium; it does not deserve raga; equally it does not deserve dveṣa also; because dveṣa is as much dangerous as raga; because if I neglect the physical body and physical health that is also dangerous because, even spiritual sadhana requires a healthy body. Therefore, negligence of the body is as much a problem as pampering the body.
Therefore, it is like rope-walking; neither should I have attachment, nor should I have hatred. This middle path is extremely difficult; but if a person manages to transcend both raga and dveṣa; moha eva vinirjitaḥ; saha, here also the word mohaḥ means deha abhimana only
To turn our attention away from the sense world and to seek diligently the experience of the Transcendental is the path by which the Higher can be unfolded.
He who has won a victory over his own delusory misconceptions (moha) and is not tempted by the outer world, discovers in himself a steadiness of contemplation with which he can certainly learn to withdraw himself from the whirlpools of matter and come to experience the pure Self.
This is the condition of utter liberation from the entanglements and fascinations of one's matter vestures.
The one who has conquered, saha mukthi padam arhati; for him mokṣa is easiest because physical mortality he will not look upon as his mortality.
Just as the destruction of a medium; destruction of the spectacle is not my destruction. Thus, conquering the fear of physical mortality itself is a great mystery for a human being; so saha mukti padam arhati; he deserves liberation.
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