The false notion of duality

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 75 states that, human beings have a persistent belief in the existence of the duality which in fact has no real existence. When it is realised that there is no such thing as duality there is a freedom from the notion of causation. Then one is not subject to birth etc.

According to Śaṅkara, the belief in the pluralistic universe is the result of false attachment to what is non-real. There being no external objects, duality is unreal. But people have persistent attachment (abhiniveśaḥ) to the existence of duality. There is in fact no duality. The cause of birth is this attachment. Hence, when man realises that there is no such thing as duality, is never born again as he is free from that very cause i.e. attachment to the illusory duality. It has been highlighted in this kārikā that despite the illusoriness of duality the human beings cling to the world with great persistence. But if they realise the Truth which is the absence of duality then they are free from causation which serves as the reason for the cycle of birth and death.

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 76 asserts that since one does not find any cause, the mind does not come into being (yadāna labhate hetūn tadāna jāyate cittaṃ). This kārikā is an elaboration of what was stated earlier that without a cause there is no effect.

The kārikā reads as:

‘When one finds no cause, neither superior nor inferior nor middle, the mind becomes free from birth. When cause is not there, how can there be an effect’?

Śaṅkara in his commentary explains three types of causes. They are:

1. The superior (uttama) are those meritorious actions (dharmas) performed according to the rules ordained by one’s caste (jāti) and station in life (ā śrama). When these actions are performed by men without any attachment to the results (phala) i.e. free from desires, lead to the attainment of the states of gods and others. The superior/highest causes are purely virtuous. In them there is predominance of dharma.

2. Middling (madhyamā) causes are mixtures of actions of merit and demerit which leads to birth as human beings etc.

3. Actions of demerit are the inferior (adhama) causes and lead one to be born as lower animals such as beasts, birds etc. or remain as inanimate objects in the world.

When one realises the reality of the ātman which is one without a second and free from all imaginations, does not see and does not relate himself/itself to the superior, middle and inferior causes (or actions). These causes are imagined on account of ignorance (avidyā). This is like a man of discrimination does not see any dirt in the sky which a child imagines therein. In the same way the mind is not born. It does not take on the forms of divine beings (gods), men, lower animals, insects, and plants etc. which are respectively the results/effects of the superior, middling and inferior causes.

What is meant here is that when there is no cause there is no effect, as when there is no seed there is no sprout.

The significant point made by the Kārikākāra is that when the cause is annihilated, the effect ceases to be born. What is important here to note is that the knowledge that there is no cause will remove the entire sequence of cause-effect cycle. Causation is a notion imagined by the mind and with the knowledge when this notion is uprooted the bhava/ saṃsāra is also simultaneously uprooted.

In the kārikā 77, Gauḍapāda holds the view that the mind that is unborn remains so under all circumstances. It remains the same without any change whatsoever. All dualities are mere cittadṛśyam or objectification of the mind. The kārikā makes the following point thus:

‘The non-origination (the state of knowledge) of the mind, which is unborn and free from causal relation, is absolute and constant. Everything else is also equally unborn. (So what is true of the mind is true of everything else as well). For, all duality is merely an objectification of the mind’.

According to Śaṅkara the mind is unborn because it has no cause to generate it. The non-origination of the mind is also called liberation. All the so called causes are notional and they disappear on account of the realisation of Ultimate Truth. This state of non-origination of the mind is non-dual and ever remains the same.

In the absence of objects, the mind remains one (non-dual) in all the three states of wakeful, dream and deep sleep. Even before the realisation of knowledge (in the state of ignorance) the mind always remains one/non-dual, being without birth (nonmanifest). Before the Ultimate Truth is realized the mind may appear to be dual i.e. with the knower and the known distinction appear to be born. The notion of duality and birth are mere objects perceived by the mind (cittadṛśya). Hence the nonorigination of the mind ever remains same and non-dual. Even when there is false and erroneous perception of silver in a shell, the shell remains the shell, and its perceived appearance as silver is unreal even while being perceived as silver. In other words the mind never either exits nor ceases to be. It is sama meaning uniformly the same.

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 78 says that, ‘Having (thus) realised the absence of causality as the Ultimate Truth, and also not finding any other cause (for birth), one attains to that (the state of liberation) which is free from grief, desire and fear’.

According to Śaṅkara, the false notion of duality is the cause for the cycle of birth and death. When this notion is corrected then there is a realisation that there is actually no causal operation and with this corrective knowledge there is the attainment of liberation which is a state free from grief, desire and fear. What is central to this kārikā is that with the realisation that there is no causal functioning, one attains the highest state.

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 79 repeats the phrase abhūtābhinivesa (obsession with the unreal) used in kārikā 75. He says: ‘Owing to the persistent belief in the existence of unrealities (duality), the mind engages itself in thinking of unreal objects. But when it has the realisation of the unreality of objects (i.e. the non-existence of external objects), mind becomes detached and returns back to its pure state’.

According to Śaṅkara, attachment to the notion that external objects exist is due to the conviction that duality is the ultimate even though duality has no real existence. This delusion which is caused by ignorance makes the mind run after external objects. But when one comes to know that the unreality is inseparable from duality, then the mind becomes unattached, having no more desires and turns back (vinivartate) from all unreal objects.

In kārikā 80, Gauḍapāda further describe the (padam) state of enlightenment which has been already mentioned in kārikā 78. He says that,

‘The mind, thus freed from attachment (to all external objects) and undistracted (by fresh objects) attains to its state of Immutability. Being actually realised by the wise, it is undifferentiated, birthless and non-dual’.

As Śaṅkara explains when the mind is withdrawn from objects of duality (nivṛttasya) and does not engage in any other similar dual objects (apravvṛttasya), then the mind remains in the state of Immutability (niścala sthitiḥ). The mind is of the same nature as Brahman, being non-dual and of the essence of Consciousness. This can be realised only by the wise. Śaṅkara says this state is the highest, homogenous (sāmyam) undifferentiated, unborn and non-dual.

This same concept was also referred in kārikā 3:34 as the pracāraḥ, or condition, of the insightful one (dhīmataḥ) whose mind is cleared (nigṛhīta) and free from conceptual constructs (nirvikalpa).

Bhattacharya points out several Buddhist parallels here. The wording of the key phrase appears to come directly from Vasubandhu’s Vimsatika (Yo buddhānāṃ viṣayaḥ) and also appears in the Catuḥśataka (viṣayaḥ sa hi buddhānāṃ) as well as the Mahāyānasūtrālaṅkāra XXI.26 (Buddhānāṃ viṣayād api).^[1]

Gauḍapāda in kārikā 81 says: ‘The Self/ātman is free from birth, sleep, dream and is self-luminous. The Self reveals itself by itself. This ātman (i.e. Dharma) is ever effulgent/illumined by its very essential nature’.

Śaṅkara in his commentary on this kārikā says that the ātman reveals itself by itself (prabhātaṃ svayam). The meaning is that it is by nature self effulgent. It does not require the aid of the sun to illuminate it. It is self revelatory (dharmāḥ), possessed of such characteristics is always illuminating (sakṛt-vibhātaḥ). The self luminosity is its very essential nature (dhātusvabhāvataḥ).

According to Bhattacharya the kārikā 81 introduces another well-known Mahāyāna Buddhist epithet for this pada or Buddha-viṣayaḥ by calling it the dharmadhātu. Bhattacharya says, “the word ‘dharmandhātu’ may be translated ‘by the essence of reality’... It is a synonym for paramārtha or paramārthatattva”.^[2]

The ‘ajam anidram asvapnaṃ’ of this kārikā is similar to kārikā 3:36 and the phrases ‘sakṛd vibhati’ and ‘sakṛdvibhātam’ have the same meaning. This kārikā also describes the nature of unchangeable (kūṭastha) ātman. This is same to the kārikā I:16 i.e. “Anādimāyayāsupto ajam anidram asvapnam advaitaṃ budhyate tadā”.

Bhattacharya interprets the term “dharma” in the Buddhist sense as “sarvabījakaālayavijñāna or āśraya parāvṛtti”. Further he reads “dharmaḥ dhātuḥ svabhāvataḥ” as “dharmadhātuḥ svabhāvataḥ”.

Bhattacharya writes:

Some editions read ‘dharmo dhātuḥ svabhavataḥ’ and others read ‘dharmo dhātusvabhāvataḥ’, but neither of these seems to be very satisfactory and thus leads the present writer to amend the reading as dharmadhātu svabhāvataḥ. The reading ‘dharmo dhātu’ appears to be due to the unfamiliarity of the commentators with the significance of the word ‘dharmadhātu’ which is quite appropriate here.^[3]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Bhattacharya, Āgama śāstra, 187.

[2]:

Ibid, 189.

[3]:

Ibid, 189.