Ātmabodha is a prakarana-grantha - subsidiary text which has the features of:
-śāstra-ekadeśa, deals with some aspects of the mūla-grantha (upaniṣad).
-śāstra-kāryāntaram stitham, having the secondary job of revealing the vastu, by elaboration, reasoning, example, etc. to help the understanding of the main purport of upaniṣad.
Ātmā means self, which is the true nature of every individual being. It can be understood as the essence of any given thing, like clay is the ātmā of pot, or water is the ātmā of waves. Bodha means knowledge. Thus ātmabodha is self knowledge, which is revealed by this text with the same title.
tapobhiḥ kṣīṇapāpānāṁ śāntānāṁ vītarāgiṇām |
mumukṣūnāmapekṣyo’yam ātmabodho vidhīyate || 1 ||
The text ātmabodha is composed, keeping the expectation for those who yearn for liberation, whose pāpa have been depleted by austerities, who have no disturbance, and whose binding desires are gone.
ayam - this text ātmabodho - ātmabodha vidhīyate - is composed mumukṣūnāmapekṣyaḥ - for people who are yearning for liberation. Being one who has a desire for mokṣa is not qualified enough as a seeker of freedom. We all want to be free, but we also want other things in keeping with our likes and dislikes, therefore the intended audience for self knowledge should be also vītarāgiṇām - those whose binding desires are gone, those who have vairagya. If we still attach to the worldly pursuits, we can’t be free from them. In the same time one should be śāntānāṁ - those who have no disturbance, so the mind is clear enough to understand the teaching and stay with the subject matter.
Having come to this point of life pursuing self-knowledge is not easy. One would have been following the life of dharma and accumulating lots of punya, thus the students of this text are those whose pāpa have been depleted by austerities - tapobhiḥ kṣiṇapāpānāṁ. Tapas - austerity in general means wishful self-denial over one’s own body-mind-senses, which gives results as strength of mind and also removing some pāpa because it involves some discomfort. It is often described as the mind's purifier since it weakens our likes and dislikes, so the mind is objective to receive knowledge.
In the tradition, anubandha-catustaya - four-fold linking points of the text is presented by the author in the beginning of the text to announce the purpose and eligibility of the study. We can see the linking points in the first verse itself, they are:
1) Adhikari: the qualified student who is endowed with sadhana-catustaya - four-fold qualification:
a)Viveka - discrimination, one who has the ability to discriminate between permanent and impermanent, who could see the limitation of the impermanent world, described by the word kṣiṇapāpānāṁ. As some delusions come as the result of pāpa covering our discriminative ability, thus one needs punya to employ viveka.
b) Vairāgyam - dispassion, pointed out by vītarāgiṇām.
c) Śamādi-ṣaṭka-sampatti - six-folds wealth :
śama - composed mind, dama - mastery over senses, uparama - observance of one’s own duty, titiksa - acceptance, śraddhā - trust towards teacher and śāstra, and samādhāna - one pointed mind. These six-fold disciplines are pointed out by śāntānāṁ.
d) Mumukṣutvam - desires for liberation, which is mumukṣūnām here.
2) Viśaya - subject matter, which is ātmabodha - knowledge of the self.
3) Prayojanam - the purpose of studying this text, which is mokṣa, is told by the word mumukṣūnām.
4) Sambandha - the connection between the text and what is to be achieved is illuminator and illumined. vidhīyate - the text is composed as the illuminator and the nature of the self is illuminated.
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