Self Knowledge Gives Liberation

Sankara's Vivek Chudamani:: Self Knowledge  Gives Liberation(194-206)

• For the  Self,which is unattached,without activity and formless, there can be no connection with the world of objects other than delusion,just like the blueness   etc.  seen in the sky((195)
• Jeeva-hood of Atman which  is the witness,which  is beyond all qualities and activities,and  which  is subjectively   experienced  as Bliss and Knowledge Absolute,  is unreal and is but a delusion  caused  by  the  intellect.  Since by nature it(jeewa-hood)  is unreal, it ceases to exist once the  delusion had been lifted(196)
• Having  been  caused   by  an  error  of judgement and  false understnading,  the jeeva-hood can   exist only as long as the  delusion  lasts.The  rope is mistaken to be the snake  only when there is an illusion.Once the illusion  is destroyed,there can  be  no s nake. So,too,in this case(197)
• So too, avidya and  its effects are said to be beginningless. But when there is rise of vidya, then avidya, even though it is beginningless,is destroyed, root and branch, just as  dreams are destroyed on  waking up.The phenomenal universe is not eternal, it is evident,like the "former non-existence"( (Prak-abhava)(199)
• Although  it  is beginningless,"former non-existence"is  found  to have an end. So too,the jeeva-hood which  is  imagined to be  in   the Atman, through  its  apparent conditioning  in the super-imposed attributes like the   intellect, is not  real.But  the  other, (the Self) is intrinsically   different  from it(jeeva-hood).  The  relation between   the Atman and the  intellect is due to the "false  knowledge"(200-201)
• The  superimposition  will cease  to function at the  dawn  of right knowledge and  in  no other way.  According to the  scriptures, realisation  oft he identity  oft he  soul  and the Brahman is  right knowledge(202)
• This   realisation comes only through   right discrimination  made  between  the Self and the not Self. That is why  one must strive  to discriminate between  the individual  Self within  and  the Eternal  Self everywhere.(203)
• Water  which  is  extremely muddy  appears  as  transparent  water when   the  mud has  been removed.   So  too,the Atman manifests Its clear  lustre  when   the impurities  have been  removed(204)
• The  very  individual Self is  clearly  realised   as   the Eternal Self  when   the unreal ceases   to  exist.  So onemust  strive    to  remove the  ego etc.  from  the Eternal Self(205)
•   For the  following   reasons,  the intelletual-sheath  which  we  have   so far spoken cannot be supreme  Self.  It  is  subject   to change, it  is  inert and insetient, it is limited .  It  is an  object of the  senses and  it  is not constant.  A mortal, perishable  thing,indeed, cannot be said to be immortal,imperishable Atman)206)

Ved Pprakash