Advaitasiddhi 3.186

3.186

ityādau sākṣānnityatvoktivirodhaḥ iti, tanna, pralayaparyantasthāyiduḥkhabhogānāyatana jñānamātrapradhānadehaparatayā tvadvivakṣitaparatvābhāvāt. ata eva jaḍastato bhinnaśca. na ca "ānandarūpamamṛtaṃ yadvibhāti", "āpraṇakhāt sarva evānandaḥ", "modo dakṣiṇaḥ pakṣaḥ," "tadātmako bhagavān yadātmikā vyaktiḥ, kimātmako bhagavān ? jñānātmaka aiśvaryātmaka" ityādiśruterbhedābhāve'pi ahikuṇḍalanyāyena viśeṣabalādvigrahavattvopapattiriti- vācyam, ātmano jñānānandarūpatvapratipādanaparatvena vigrahāpratipādakatvāt. `vicitraśaktiḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇa' ityādivākyasya `ātmani caivaṃ vicitrāśca hī'ti sūtrasya ca māyāśaktivaicitryapratipādakatvenātmaśaktyapratipādakatvād, āpraṇakhādityādeśca līlāvigrahāvacchedena duḥkhādyabhoktṛtayopapatteḥ. modo dakṣiṇa ityāderānandamaya kośapratipādakatayā brahmaparatvābhāvāt. na hi śrutyuktatvamātreṇa brahmaṇo vigraharūpatā, `brahmaivedaṃ sarvaṃ puruṣa evedaṃ sarva'mityādi śrutyā prapañcarūpatāpi brahmaṇyāpadyeta. svarūpānanda eva nityatvavadaparādhīnatvavacca vigrahatvakalpanasya paribhāṣāmātratvāt. manmate'pi brahmātiriktasya brahmasattāsamānasattākatvābhimatasya brahmaṇi niṣedhāṅgīkārāt. na ca- naiṣā tarkeṇa matirāpaneye'ti tarkāgamyatvoktyā ātmana eva vigrahavattvamiti vācyam, nirviśeṣātmana eva tarkāgamyatvoktyā ātmano vigrahavattvasya tarkāgamyatvānukterarūpatvena cākṣuṣatvāprasaktyā piśācādivadantardhānaśaktyānupalambhasamarthanasyāprasaktasamarthanatvād, vigrahapakṣe `apāṇipāda' ityādiśrutivirodhasyoktatvācca.

in such texts there is a contradiction with direct statements of eternity—that is not so; for this refers to a body that lasts until dissolution, is not a locus for the experience of suffering, and has knowledge alone as its primary element, and does not have the sense intended by you. Therefore it is insentient and different from it. Nor should it be said that by the rule of the serpent and its coil, an embodied form is established despite the absence of difference, on the strength of particularity, in accordance with śrutis such as 'That which shines, whose nature is bliss and immortal', 'Bliss entirely up to the fingernails', 'Joy is the right wing', 'The Lord is of that nature of which the manifestation is; of what nature is the Lord? Consisting of knowledge, consisting of sovereignty'; for these are intended to teach that the Self is of the nature of knowledge and bliss, and do not teach an embodied form. For the statement 'The ancient Person possesses manifold power' and the aphorism 'And thus manifold powers are indeed in the Self' teach the manifold nature of the power of illusion, and do not teach powers of the Self; and texts such as 'up to the fingernails' are accounted for as non-experiencing of suffering and the like as delimited by the sport-body. Passages such as 'Joy is the right wing' refer to the bliss-sheath, and do not refer to Brahman. For Brahman does not possess an embodied form merely because it is stated in śruti, since by śrutis such as 'All this is indeed Brahman' and 'The Person alone is all this', Brahman would also be reduced to being of the nature of the phenomenal world. For the superimposition of having an embodied form upon the bliss of one's own nature, like eternity and like independence, is merely technical terminology; since in my view as well, what is other than Brahman and considered to have a reality equal to that of Brahman is accepted to be negated in Brahman. Nor can it be said that the Self alone possesses an embodied form because it is stated to be inaccessible to reasoning in 'This cognition is not to be obtained by reasoning'; for since only the attribute-free Self is stated to be inaccessible to reasoning, it is not stated that the Self's possessing an embodied form is inaccessible to reasoning; and since, because of formlessness, perceptibility to the eye cannot apply, defending its non-perception by the power of invisibility like that of goblins and the like is a defence of something that is not applicable; and because, on the view of an embodied form, contradiction with śrutis such as 'Without hands and feet' has already been stated.