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So continuing about the definition of liberation, Kaivalya, and the separation of Prakṛti and Puruṣa, the seer and the seen, and the disconnection between the two, that is the Kaivalya, and continuing the same description, the 26th and the 27th sūtras of the Sādhanapāda are another important sūtras. The 26th is the
वि॒वे॒कख्यातिर॒वि॒प्ल॒वा हा॑नोपा॒यः ॥ २.२६॥
Vivekakhyātir aviplavā hānopāyaḥ.
Viveka, khyāti, then aviplava, hāna, then upāyaḥ, Vivekakhyātir aviplavā hānopāyaḥ, hāna upāyaḥ it is.
So viveka is the discrimination, khyāti is the knowledge, viplava is the interruption, aviplava is uninterrupted, break and without break, hāna is the avoid, removal, avoiding suffering, upāyaḥ is the technique, a remedy. That is how the sūtra words - Vivekakhyātir aviplavā hānopāyaḥ.
The translation, the understanding is: the remedy to remove is the uninterrupted discriminative knowledge. The remedy, the technique, the upāya is vivekakhyāti aviplava, to remove the suffering, to avoid the suffering, what is the upāya? The upāya is aviplava of the vivekakhyāti. The word khyāti comes from the root khyā - Khyā means to know, khyāti is knowing, knowledge. And the sūtra says the only upāya, the only technique, the only way out for duḥkha-hānanam is aviplava vivekakhyāti. The only way out is uninterrupted discriminative knowledge. Not knowledge of discrimination, but the discriminative knowledge. And that is the important word here. Removal of the duḥkha, removal of the avidyā, removal of the connection, the junction, for the Kaivalya, is uninterrupted vivekakhyāti. Vivekakhyāti, discriminative knowledge. It is not just knowledge, and it is not just discrimination, not just viveka, and not just a jñāna.
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, when he speaks about the, describes what is viveka — viveka is nityānitya-vastu-viveka it is called. Nityānitya-vastu-viveka - That is viveka. Means discriminating, ability to distinguish between nitya and anitya, permanence and temperance. This knowledge and understanding of what is permanent and what is temporary, this ability to distinguish, this ability to separate, that is called as viveka. Beautifully he describes that. Of course what is nitya and what is anitya also beautifully explained by Ādi Śaṅkara. And the knowledge as we have seen — the viveka in the earlier sūtras — that viveka comes from verbal knowledge or inference knowledge. We hear something, and after hearing it we infer something. So the two sources of viveka and the knowledge is this two: the verbal and the inference. But this understanding, discriminative knowledge, which comes from the verbal and the inference, it should be uninterrupted. It should be continuous.There should be a continuous discrimination, continuous discriminative knowledge. If there is a break, there is a chance to slip into avidyā, or there is a chance for rise of the avidyā. Or we should say that the junction, the link, between the dṛśya and the dṛṣṭā, Puruṣa and Prakṛti, seer and the seen, takes place. To avoid that, there should be uninterrupted.
And this vivekakhyāti also means free from the false knowledge, wrong knowledge. So anything which we know — is it right or wrong — getting from the different sources, and ability to understand what is right with discrimination, that is an important dimension. That is how, by reasoning, we establish in that vivekakhyāti. By hearing and from the inference, and we use our reasoning, and from that vivekakhyāti emerges. And we get stabilized in that. And Maharṣi Patañjali says this is the only upāya. There is no other option, there is no other technique, there is no other remedy, Vivekakhyāti and aviplava vivekakhyāti, uninterrupted discriminative knowledge, alone upāya to avoid hāna of the avidyā. There is no other dimension at all, no other way at all. This is the wonder of the beautiful sūtra, of the 26th sūtra.
The 27th sūtra is again extension of the same topic. The sūtra is
त॒स्य स॒प्त॒धा प्रान्तभूमिः॑ प्र॒ज्ञा ॥ २.२७॥
Tasya saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ prajñā.
Tasya — its. Its means vivekakhyāti, Saptadhā — sevenfold, Prānta — boundary, any boundaries are called prānta. Āndhra prānta. Āndhra within the boundaries which are the prānta. Bhūmi, prāntabhūmi, Bhūmi is the land, region, So prāntabhūmi. Prajñā — power of knowledge, power of knowing, which we have seen. It is a reference to the first chapter 48th sūtra — ṛtambharā tatra prajñā — that prajñā. So vivekakhyāti prajñā has a sevenfold and it is well defined stages — bhūmi prānta. This is the understanding of the sūtra.
The prajñā is just intellectual power of knowledge. That is a reference we should go to the ṛtambharā prajñā. And vivekakhyāti's prajñā and that is the importance of this particular sūtra. So prajñā is just intellectual power or knowledge and that is the reference which we had. And this — it is prāntabhūmi and not just bhūmi. That is why it is stages, layers, sevenfold, seven stages, seven layers, seven dimensions — prāntabhūmi. That prajñā develops in seven stages. That is an important dimension here.
So vivekakhyāti prajñā unfolds, develops, emerges, comes in seven stages. That is the saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ. And the seven stages are well defined. That is why it is prānta and bhūmi — a region, a particular stage.
So vivekakhyāti prajñā, the discriminative knowledge and its power of awareness, it doesn't come suddenly. It doesn't just drop from the blue.
It is an orderly, systematic unfoldment and growth and development, which has seven stages. And beautifully Swami Vivekananda tells wonderfully while writing a commentary on this sūtra. He writes: "When we begin to practice the power of discrimination, the first sign is that we are getting near truth, will be that the dissatisfied state will vanish. The second grade will be that all pains will be gone. It will be impossible for anything in the universe — physical, mental, spiritual — to give us pain. The third will be that we shall get full knowledge. The next will come what is called as freedom from the citta."
Swami Vivekananda beautifully says: "the first sign is a dissatisfied state will go, the second is all pains will be lost, and the third is the presence of the knowledge, and the last is the freedom from the citta." So this sūtra points out that the state of uninterrupted awareness is obtained through seven stages. So there are seven stages before reaching the vivekakhyāti. That is the sūtra.
So the 26th was vivekakhyātir aviplavā hānopāyaḥ, and that vivekakhyātir the 27th one — tasya saptadhā prāntabhūmiḥ prajñā. That is beautiful two sūtras give the goal, the definition and the technique and how to achieve it. The intricacies of the prāntabhūmi and vivekakhyāti prajñā — let us see further sūtras.
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||
To Be Continued.. ----------------------------------------
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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