Sixth Adhyaya, Sixteenth Khanda (3 mantras)

Mantra 6.16.1.

1. My child, the king’s officials bring a man handcuffed, saying “He has robbed, he has committed a theft.” (When he denies, the king says) “Heat the axe for him.” If he is the doer of the crime imputed to him, (by the fact of his commission on the offence and its denial) he makes his soul a liar. That false-minded one having covered his soul with falsehood, grasps the heated axe, he is burnt, and then (his guilt being proved) he is killed.—468.

Note.—Similary the ministers of Vāyu (the Christ who judgeth all) bring the Advaitin the Pretender who attempts to rob God and steal his divinity, saying: “This man is a Pretender to Brahman, a stealer of Brahmanhood.” The word Ātmā also means “the body.” Covering the Ātmā with truth or falsehood means putting an aura of truth or falsehood around his body. The thief by his crime has robbed himself of his best protection, this aura of innocence, and has further degraded himself by his denial. The innocent accused by his non-commission of the crime has this aura round his body, he unconsciously covers his hand with this protective aura, and is not burnt though he grasps the heated iron. The ordeals are no tests now, for there are no longer judges and kings who are masters of occult forces and can regulate this aura. If however there be any such judge or king, test by ordeal would again regain its probative value in his Court.

Mantra 6.16.2.

2. But if he is not the doer of the crime, by that alone he makes his soul a speaker of truth. That true-minded one covers his soul with truth and grasps the heated axe. He is not burnt, but is released.—469.

Mantra 6.16.3.

3. As that innocent man is not burnt even slightly, by this ordeal, (so the believers in God). All this universe is controlled by him. He pervades it all and is the Good. He is the destroyer of all and full of perfect qualities. Thou O Śvetaketu art not that (why then this conceit).” Then he verily knew this—yea he knew this.—470.

Madhva’s commentary called the Bhāṣya:

According to Śaṅkara the question supposed to bo asked is:—“When the method of reaching Pure being is the same, for one who is dying and for one who is going to be liberated, then how is it that the knowing person, reaching Pure being, does not return, while the ignorant person returns again? Explain to me the reason of this Sir.” According to Max Muller the purport of the Khaṇḍa is this. “The next question is; Why does he who knows on obtaining the ‘Sat’, not return, while he who does not know, though obtaining the Sat in death, returns? An illustration is chosen, which is intended to show how knowledge produces a material effect. The belief in the efficacy of ordeals must have existed at the time, and appealing to that belief, the teacher says that the man who knows himself guilty, is really burnt by the heated iron, while the man who knows himself innocent, is not. In the same manner the man who knows his Self to be the true Self on approaching after death the true Self, is not repelled and sent back into a new existence while he who does not know, is sent back into a new round of births and deaths. The man who tells a falsehood about himself, loses his true Self, and is burnt; the man who has a false conception about his Self, loses likewise his true Self, and not knowing the true self, even though approaching it in death, lie has to suffer till he acquires some day the true knowledge.”

But this explanation of Saṅkara is wrong. The true purport is thus explained:—

The son asks “what is the nature of the fault committed by those who think themselves identical with the Lord (Abhedajñānin).” To this the father replies, “since the thief, who steals the property of another is punished by the king, how much more must not he be punished who steals the very Kingship, (who says I am the King). Similarity he who steals Brahman is destroyed by Brahman. That Brahman who is the Governor and King of all is said to be stolen by the person, who forgetting the true nature of Brahman lays claim to Brahmanship. Such a stealer of Brahman is punished by being thrown into blinding darkness where he lives for ever.

But if a person says “I am king,” he is punished by the officers of the king. Who are the officers of Brahman who punish those who lay claim to being one with Brahman.

To this the Commentator answers:—

The Devas called Faults led by their chief Ignorance, bind the man who steals the divine kingship of Viṣṇu. They thus stop the vain conceit of such a person. Binding him, when he dies, they bring him to Viṣṇu. There the Devas try him with the help of the Lord (and he gets his condign punishment). But when a person who is not a thief of Brahman dies and is brought bound by the Devas called Faults, he cries out “I am not Viṣṇu, I am not independent, I do not possess perfect qualities, My Lord is Hari eternally, He alone is independent and possesses in full the six qualities.” When he thus vehemently asserts his difference from Him, as a person accused of a crime asserts his innocence on oath, and is ready to undergo the ordeal, he thus knowing is not punished. The Fire of the ordeal does not burn him, for he enjoys the inner bliss of a free conscience. Then the Lord frees such a man from those Faults, makes him His own, and he becomes a Member of the Household of the Lord He punishes those who had falsely accused him. But he who entertains the false notion that he is one with Brahman is thrown, along with the faults, into the darkness called “Andha tamas”, which is like a great prison-house; or He causes him to be thrown into a deeper hell called the great-blinding-darkness (Mahā-Andha-Tamas) where there is mutilation of the limbs, or into still greater hell if the man is fit for that and is a perverse believer in Abheda. This hell is like the punishment of killing (eternal damnation).

The hells are thus of three sorts, one like mere imprisonment, second where there is corporal punishment, and the third and the last where there is capital punishment. This last is the eternal hell of Madhva.

Therefore learning from the teacher the glorious perfection of Viṣṇu, and one’s being separate from Him, let him worship the Lord thus, etc., by so doing, he undoubtedly gets Release (Mukti). Thus it is in the Sāma Saṃhitā.