Self-knowledge as the result of śravana-manana-nididhyāsana removes ignorance and its products. The next verse presents the removal of products of ignorance in the form of cessation of sense of individuality.
sthāṇao puruṣavadbhrāntyā kṛtā brahmaṇi jīvatā |
jīvasya tāttvike rūpe tasmin dṛṣṭe nivartate || 45 ||
Just like seeing a person in a wooden trunk, similarly individuality is superimposed upon brahman because of delusion. When the intrinsic nature of jīva is seen in brahman, the individuality goes away.
Seeing from the total point of view, brahman manifests himself into everything here without undergoing any change, which means everything here is brahman alone. But seeing from the individual point of view, because of not knowing this fact, I consider this manifested body-mind-senses to be me, the individual self, which is different from everything else. This is superimposition of individuality - jīvatvam upon brahman. sthāṇao puruṣavad - just like seeing a person in a wooden trunk, similarly bhrāntyā - because of delusion kṛtā brahmaṇi jīvatā - individuality is superimposed upon brahman. jīvasya tāttvike rūpe tasmin dṛṣṭe - when nature of jīva is recognised in brahman, jīvatā nivartate - individuality goes away. Therefore brahma prāptih - gaining brahman as a result of self-knowledge, actuality is abrahman nivrttih - cessation of what is not brahman.
What kind of individuality is removed in the wake of self-knowledge?
tattvasvarūpānubhavādutpannam jñānamañjasā |
aham mameti cājñānam bādhate digbhramādivat || 46 ||
Obstacles’ free-knowledge which is born of deliberate seeing oneself as brahman removes delusion of I-ness and mine-ness, just like the delusion about direction.
Most of the people translate anubhāva as experience, where any knowledge including false knowledge is taken place. And further experience is divided into yathārtha-anubhāva - valid experience in keeping with the object, (as the object is, so is your experience) and ayathārtha-anubhāva - false experience of an object (seeing rope as a snake). In the context of ātmā anubhavā word is used as immediate knowledge of “I ātmā being brahman” which is free from doubts and habitual error.
When tattvasvarūpānubhavād - I am of the nature of limitless brahman, utpannam jñānam - this knowledge is born, then añjasā - immediately, without gap, the wrong conclusions born of ignorance namely aham - I-ness and mameti - mine-ness bādhate - are dismissed. Ignorance is the cause for individuality, and the whole samsāra. When the cause is removed, the effects are gone at the same time without any gap.
The words I-ness and mine-ness are used to avoid the wrong connotation of the word anubhava as experience. Some people might think that where individuality goes away, one doesn’t experience duality any more. This is not the meaning. Therefore individuality in the form of I-ness and mine-ness are used here, where these cognitions don’t require any experience. When I own up that I am limitless brahman, brahman is recognised in every cognition of I.
digbhramādivat - just like the knowledge of the correct direction removes the confusion about the wrong direction, in the same way, the right knowledge about ātmā dismisses the error in the form of I-ness and mine-ness.
The next verse presents the vision of a wise person, implying freedom from sense of limitation as the result of self-knowledge.
samyagvijñānavānyogī svātmanyevākhilam jagat |
ekañca sarvamātmānamīkṣate jñānacakṣuṣā || 47 ||
Through the eyes of wisdom, a yogī who is endowed with firm knowledge sees the entire world in oneself alone and himself as all.
In bhagavat-gītā we have seen jñānam and vijñānam in chapter 7th. The knowledge of everything here is brahman, this is jñānam and the conviction that brahman is me alone, is vijñānam. This knowledge is gained only through śravana and manana. samyagvijñānavān - one who endowed with firm conviction of oneness between me, the world and Īśvara. He is also called yogī - one who has attained samadhī (seeing the oneness between jīvā and Īśvara) by nididhyāsana.
This wise person īkṣate - he sees (appreciates) svātmanyevākhilam jagat - the entire world in himself, nothing exists apart from him. The wise person sees the world in him because he identifies himself with brahman who manifests himself into the entire world. However one who is ignorant, seeing himself inside / part of the world. Just like a wave which is helplessly seeing itself in the ocean, and after sifting its identity as water, it sees that ocean is in itself. Is there any physical or locational change on the part of the wave? No. To emphasise this idea, ācārya says sarvamātmānamīkṣate - he sees the self as all. Using this kind of presentation in reverse order, all anātmā are in ātmā as the manifestation, and ātmā - self alone appears as all. Gita chapter 6 verse 29th says the one who has uniform vision sees the self presents in all beings, and all beings are in the self.
ekañca - and one, showing there is no division at all, even in sajātiyabedha - division in the same category (ex: this pot is different from the other pots), vijātiyabedha - division from different category (ex: this pot is different from this pencil), and svagatabheda - internal division (ex: my hand is different from my leg). Apparent division is only due to anātmā names and forms depend on non-dual ātmā to exist, and this dependent existence on the part of anātmā world is called mithyā. Therefore īkṣate - he sees cognitively jñānacakṣuṣā - through the eyes of wisdom.
Since anātmā is not different from ātmā, why in the beginning we did a lot of ātmā-anātmā-viveka? Because before I come to vedānta, I identify myself with this limited name and form body-mind-senses, which causes sense of limitation in me. Therefore in the beginning, ācārya needs to tell me that I am not this body-mind-senses, their limitation does not belong to me. But after progressive understanding, we should know that the division is in the level of names and forms, in reality they are not different from me. And not just this body is not different from me, but all bodies are not different from me in the level of reality. I am the existence because of which, all the names and forms exist. To come to this point, first I should strip off all the attributes I have superimposed on myself, then the understanding of oneness can take place.
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