उपदेशसाहस्री (आदि शङ्कराचार्य - गद्य व पद्य भाग)

62 A THOUSAND TEACHINGS as before.¹ It has already ² been shown that, like the heat and light of the sun, fire and other things, the Knowledge which is changeless, eternal and self-effulgent ³ has an existence in the Self entirely independent of everything else. I have already ⁴ said that, if the self-effulgent Knowledge which is there in the Self were transitory,⁵ it would become unreasonable that the Self existed for Itself, and, being a combination, It would get impuri- ties and have an existence for the sake of another like the combination of the body and the senses. How ? (Reply) If the self-effulgent Knowledge in the Self were tran- sitory It would have a distance ⁶ by the intervention of memory etc. It would then be non-existent in the Self before being produced and after being destroyed, and the Self, then a combination, would have an existence for the sake of another like that of the eye etc. produced by the combination of certain things. The Self would have no independent existence if this Knowledge were produced before it was in It. For it is only on account of the absence or presence of the state of being com- bined that the Self is known to exist for Itself and the non-Self for another. It is, therefore, established that the Self is of the nature of eternal and self-effulgent Knowledge not dependent on anything else." ननु एवं सति, असति प्रमाश्रयत्वे कथं प्रमातुः प्रमातृ- त्वम् ॥ १०२ ॥ ¹ See para 99 above. ² See para 93 above. ³ Br. U., 4. 3. 9. ⁴ See paras 64 to 73. ⁵ And therefore producible. ⁶ See para 99.