9)
uddharedaatmanaatmaanaM magnaM sa.nsaaravaaridhau .
yogaaruuDhatvamaasaadya samyagdarshananishhThayaa
By attaining to a state of yogArudha by firm knowledge of Brahman, let one raise one's impure mind steeped in the ocean of Samsara by one's mind.
Explaing the nature of one who may be said to be a yogArudha, the Lord says in the Gita:
tydAhi nendriyArthesu na karmasvanusajjate |
sarvansaNkalpasamnyAsi yogArUdhastadocyate ||.
"One is said to be a yogArudha one one is not attached to actions having reference to objects of sense and when one has given up all desires to act
by them."
The striving for liberation has for its final step samyagdarshana or the right understanding of the nature of brahman. By this sloka, Sri BhagavatpAda
says that samyagdarshananisthA alone is the direct means to moksha, and this has to be certainly preceded by absolute detachment and that these are the only means to salvage a person from the ocean of SamsAra.
SamsAra is likened to an ocean as it corresponds to it in all features. The waves in this ocean are five: klesa (misery), avidyA (nescience), asmitA (confounding the non-Atman with the Atman), rAga (attachment), and
abhinivesa (the fear of death even among the learned); delusion is the whirlpool in that ocean; wife friends, wealth and kinsmen are the aquatic monstres in it; anger is the fierce heat in its depth (badabAgi); lust is
the net in which one is caught. To the same effect, Sri BhagavatpAda says in the LakshmInrsimhastotra: O Lord! Extend to me Thy helping hannd to rescue
me from the vast ocean of samsAra beset with the all-deveouring monster of time, and from my being lost in the mounting waves of passions". On account of the operation of the the beginningless avidyA, a person
speaks of himself as aj~na (ignorant), kartA (doer) and manusya (man); by non-realisation of it's true nature (i.e; unattached and the form of knowledge - intelligence - bliss), it is mistaken as the Karana (causal),
sUksma (subtle) and sthUla (gross) bodies respectively, and this mistakeness is itself samsAra. It is to be noted here that one has no awareness of samSara in
deep dreamless sleep (susupti) even though susupti is characterised by ajn~ana.
The reason is that in deep sleep the mind is not operative. The cause of samsAra is to be traced to the combination of ajn~ana and the mind. Hence the attachement of the undiscriminating mind to the body is itself
immersion of the Atman in the ocean of samsAra. When it is cleansed by the process of sravana, manana etc, then it attains it true nature, devoid of delusion. This means that the non-discriminating mind has to be salvaged
from whatever is non-atamn, by that mind which has accuried discrimination by study of the sAstras. Even this process of salvaging (uddharana) is only
metaphorical, as the Atman is in reality un-attached. But because of it's habit of looking outward, it appears to be attached, even as the crystal appears red because it is close to a red object. When the red
object which is the limiting adjunct (upadi) is removed, the crystal is seen to be white as ever. Similarly, the Atman that is turned inward and remanins aloof from whatever is non-Atman, is said to be salvaged.