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The Great Epic of the Bhārata dynasty 12.198.2

Mahābhārata 12.198.2

Language
Sanskrit

12.198.2

yadā karmaguṇopetā buddhirmanasi vartate |
tadā prajñāyate brahma dhyānayogasamādhinā || 2 ||

[paragraph continues] Worldly possessions bring about sorrow. In protecting them thou canst not have any happiness. They are again earned with misery. One should not therefore, regard their loss. Pure Knowledge (or Brahma) is regarded (by ignorance) as existing in the diverse forms that are objects of Knowledge. Know that mind is only an attribute of Knowledge. When the mind becomes united with the faculties of knowledge, then the Understanding (which bodies forth the forms of things) sets in. When the Understanding, freed from the attributes of action, becomes directed towards the mind (after being withdrawn from outward objects), then does it succeed in knowing Brahma by meditation or Yoga ending in complete absorption (samadhi)? The Understanding flowing from Ignorance, and possessed of the senses and attributes, runs towards external objects, like a river issuing from a mountain summit and flowing towards other regions. When the Understanding, withdrawn into the mind, succeeds in absorbing itself into contemplation that is free from attributes, it attains to a knowledge of Brahma like the touch of gold on a touchstone. The mind is the apprehender of the objects of the senses. It must first be extinguished (before Brahma can be attained). Dependent upon the attributes of objects that are before it, the mind can never show that which is without attributes. Shutting up all the doors constituted by the senses, the Understanding should be withdrawn into the mind.

Kisari Mohan Ganguli 1883, The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa

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