Establishment of Brahman 3.277

3.277

nanu pūrvasmin pakṣe tattvajñānānantaratvāddehapātasya sthitaprajñalakṣaṇābhidhānaṃ na yujyate ---
‘sthitaprajñasya kā bhāṣā'; ityādi /
dvitīyo 'pi sarvakṣaye ciratvānupapattestatrāvadhiviśeṣavidhānāyogādanupapannaḥ /
ucyate ---
sthitaprajñastāvanna vigalitanikhilāvidyaḥ siddhaḥ, kiṃ tu sādhaka evāvasthāviśeṣaṃ prāptaḥ syāt /
na ca brūmaḥ ---
brahmavedanānantara eva dehaviyogaḥ /
kiṃ tu ārabdhakāryakarmakṣayaṃ bhogena pratīkṣata iti /
tatra kasyacittatkālo 'pavargaḥ /
kasyacitkiyāṃścitkṣepaḥ /
yathā rajjvāṃ sarpasamāropasamutthabhayajanmāno vepathuprabhṛtayastattvadarśanādapāvṛte bhaye kasyacittadaiva nivartante, kasyacitkiyantañcitkālamanuvartante, tatsaṃskārāt /
tathā sarvakarmakṣaye 'pi bhujyamānavipākasaṃskārānuvṛttinibandhanā śarīrasthitiḥ /
kulālavyāpāravigama iva cakrabhrāntiḥ /

[Objection:] Surely, in the former view, because the fall of the body occurs immediately after the knowledge of reality, the statement of the characteristics of a person of steady wisdom—'What is the description of a person of steady wisdom?' and so forth—would not be appropriate. / The second [view] is also inappropriate, because when all [actions] have perished, delay is unintelligible, and so the prescription of a specific limit in that regard is impossible. / [Reply:] It is answered: / first of all, a person of steady wisdom is not an accomplished adept in whom all nescience has dissolved, but rather an aspirant who has reached a particular state. / And we do not say / that the separation from the body occurs immediately after knowing Brahman; / rather, that he awaits the exhaustion of the action whose effects have begun through experiencing. / There, for one person liberation is at that very time; / for another there is some delay. / Just as trembling and the like, which arise from fear caused by superimposing a snake upon a rope, in the case of one person cease immediately when fear is removed by the vision of reality, whereas in the case of another they persist for some time because of the latent impression thereof; / so too, even upon the perishing of all actions, the continuance of the body is based upon the persistence of the latent impression of the ripening [of action] that is being experienced, / like the spinning of the wheel upon the cessation of the potter's activity.