Chapter 13 Eye-lessness
13.1 to 13.5
Yajnavalkya tells Gargi (Br Up 3.8.8): Brahman is not gross, not oily, nothing is inside outside, thereby suggesting all negations. What remains is not negated and is a positive entity, Brahman. A knower of Brahman is Brahman (Mun Up 3.2.9). An enlightened person is capable of using the word ‘I’ emperically and also at the Absolute level.
The author uses a rhetorical device of putting words in the mouth of Brahman. The verses are in the1st person. Brahman is of the nature of pure consciousness and is different from the gross and subtle bodies which are essentially inert. Therefore, Brahman speaks. Alternatively, an enlightened ego speaks:
I am devoid of sense organs, vital forces, and the mind. Therefore, I do not see or touch or taste or think. I am devoid of action. Even in the state of ignorance, I remain pure and unaffected. Ignorance and knowledge belong to the mind, not to me. Similarly, hunger, thirst, old age and death belong to the body, not to me. I am changeless and indestructible. I am all-pervading like space.
Space is not affected by what happens to the objects contained in the space. An ignorant person suffers because he identifies with body and transfers the problems of mbs to himself. A wise person does not transfer and does not suffer.
13.6 to 13.8 The mind assumes the form of external objects when it comes in their contact through sense organs. The forms are mental modifications. There are other modifications, such as, memory, attachment, aversion and dream. In the dream, the modifications are the impressions created on it during the waking state. I am of the nature of consciousness. The modifications are known (revealed) by my light. I am different from a particular knowledge. I am the Knowledge (knowing principle). Just as by the heat of fire we mean the heat which is fire itself. Witness is a relational term. Though I am unaffected by the mental modifications, from their standpoint, I am the witness as I illumine them and they happen in my presence. I am the witnessing-consciousness.
13.9 and 13.10 The verses talk about ignorance and its effects. My true nature is unchanging pure consciousness. Whereas, due to ignorance, I identify myself with the mind-body system (mbs). As a result, pain and pleasure of mbs is taken as my pain and pleasure making me impure and changing. A crystal is orange in the presence of an adjacent orange cloth. A man lacking discernment would think that orangeness belongs to the crystal. Crystal is ever pure. Cloth is the adjunct and the colour of the cloth is superimposed on the crystal. Experience is often misleading.
Self is neither deluded nor wise. Self is the witness of deluded and wise mind. Ordinary persons successfully manage to change a situation which concerns mbs into my problem. This is samsara. Samsara is mithya but it gains the status of reality due to ignorance.
13.11 to 13.14
Earlier verses are regarding de-superimposition using reason: seer is different from seen. Now in following verses scriptural authority is used. What is the role of scripture for a mumukshu. The role is different from that for those who desire material benefits in Karma Kanda. A Karma Kandi blindly follows scriptures. A mumukshu does not blindly follow the scriptures. A mumukshu’s approach is to understand the scriptures with reason and experience. The goal is knowledge. The scriptures are like a road map, i.e., to guide us with the help of a guru in our Self-inquiry through Sravan, Manan, and Nidhidhyasana.
When the scripture (Br Up 3.8.8) says that Brahman has no eyes and the text (Mu Up 2.1.2) says that Brahman is devoid of vital forces, mind, and body, and the text (Katha Up 1.3.15) says that I have no connection with sound etc, they point to my true nature (Self), i.e., consciousness. Then an inquiry is carried whether consciousness has eyes, etc. Self-inquiry leads to the conclusion that the Self has neither agitation nor samadhi. They are attributes of the changing mind. Whereas the Self is the unchanging observer of the changing mind and body.
13.15 to 13.18 The verses are repetition of what have been said earlier. I am unborn, immortal, blemish less, ever free and pure. I am changeless, all-pervading and devoid of mind and body. I do not meditate. It is the mind which meditates on me by which one attains the highest goal of life. I am ever awakened and have no duties to perform. Duties are prescribed so long as there is ignorance. All desires are fulfilled for me because all desires are as though subsumed in the highest goal of life. I continue to live and act for the welfare of the world until prarabdha is exhausted.
13.19 to 13.21 I am non-dual and of the nature of consciousness which pervades everything. There is no consciousness other than me abiding in all beings. In my manifested form (Isvara), I am the distributor of results of actions of all beings. I am different from three visible elements (fire, water and earth) and two visible elements (air and space). I am also different from their combinations. I am free from attributes and devoid of three constituents. I am all-pervading like space. There is no day and night for me just as there is no day or night for sun.
13.22 There is an apparent difference between consciousness in mind and consciousness in itself just like there is an apparent difference between space in the pot and the space as such. In reality, there is no difference between pot-space and the space as such as is evident when there is only one space when pot is broken. Similarly, the consciousness in the mind is not different from the all-pervading consciousness. There are individual embodied consciousnesses, but they are essentially same. It is correct to say that the mind exists in consciousness like pot exists in space.
13.23 and 13.24 The concepts like difference, non-difference, known, unknown belong to the mind and are at empirical level and not at the Absolute level (Self). But an ignorant man superimposes these concepts on the Self, and he becomes a knower or a doer. Vedanta teaches Self-knowledge to an aspirant which is to cognitively remove the superimposition and (re) claim (his) true nature. Once there is de-superimposition, there is Self-realization. This is the summit as there is nothing to be removed or gained for a Self-realized man. He does not need Vedanta or a preceptor.
13.25 to 13.27 The author summarizes the Vedantic teaching for a seeker who has acquired control of mind and has given up worldly attachment. There are many persons but there is only one Self and further that the Self is Brahman. In other words, every jiva is potentially divine. There results perfection and liberation on realization of the divinity. Contrarily, non-realization of the divinity is like committing suicide.