उपदेशसाहस्री (आदि शङ्कराचार्य - गद्य व पद्य भाग)

11-15] A CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE SELF AND MIND 293 prior to your coming into (apparent) existence and on which you yourself are superimposed cannot Itself be superimposed. असद्द्वयं तेऽपि हि यद्यदीक्ष्यते न दृष्टमित्येव न चैव नास्तिता । यतः प्रवृत्ता सदसद्विकल्पना विचारवद्द्वापि तथाद्वयं च सत् ॥ १४ ॥ 14. The duality pervaded by you is unreal. That It is not seen is no reason that the Self does not exist. That from which the wrong notions of existence and non-existence proceed¹ (must exist). And just as a deliberation ends in a conclusion, so, (all things super- imposed have a final substratum) in the really existing and non-dual Self. सदभ्युपेतं भवतोपकल्पितं विचारहेतोर्यदि तस्य नास्ति- ता । विचारहानाच्च तथैव संस्थितं न चेत्तदिष्टं नितरां सदिष्यते ॥ १५ ॥ 15. If the duality, created by you and assumed by us to be real so that an investigation of the Truth might be possible, were non-existent² Truth would remain unascertained owing to the investigation becoming impossible. The existence³ of a reality must be accepted as a matter of course if an un- ascertained nature of Truth is not desirable. ¹ I.e., are superimposed on It. See verse 16, chapter 16. ² A void. ³ Non-dual existence which is common to all dual phenomena must be accepted as real. But excluding one another, phenomena themselves are not persistent in their existence and are, therefore, unreal. See Sankara's Commentary on Bh. Gîtâ, 2. 16.