Arise! Awake!

At the end of this chapter, śruti addresses the listeners directly.

uttiṣṭhata jāgrata prāpya varān nibodhata |

kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgam pathastat kavayo vadanti ||1.3.14||

Arise. Awake. Having approached the great ones, know (ātmā). The wise declare that the path (of self-knowledge) is difficult to tread, just as the sharp edge of a razor is difficult to walk upon.

uttiṣṭhata - (oh students) get up; get ready to turn yourself toward the path of self-knowledge. jāgrata - wake up; may you put an end to the sleep of ignorance (samsāra), just as a dreamer suffering in a dream wakes up to the nature of the waking state when one is comfortably laying down. Knowing the nature of reality alone solves the problem.

How? prāpya varān - having approached the teacher (knower of the self), learn from him systematically and consistently for a length of time until one understands. nibodhata - may you know “I am ātmā, the innermost self of all”.

kṣurasya dhārā niśitā duratyayā durgam pathastat kavayo vadanti - the wise people declare that the path of knowledge is as difficult to tread as walking on the razor’s edge; because of the subtlety and precision of the mind that are required to grasp this knowledge, thus it is said to be difficult. The solution to this problem is to make knowledge easy to understand. Making it easy means being prepared for it by acquiring the necessary qualifications (sādhana-catuṣṭaya sampattiḥ - fourfold qualification of a vedānta’s student). Because anything is difficult for the unprepared, and anything is easy for the prepared.