मुमुक्षवः पुरुषाः साधनचतुष्टयसम्पन्नाः श्रद्धावन्तः सुकुलभवं श्रोत्रियं शास्त्रवात्सल्यगुणवन्तमकुटिलं सर्वभूतहितेरतं दयासमुद्रं सद्गुरुं विधिवदुपसंगम्योपहारपाणयोऽष्टोत्तरशतोपनिषदं विधिवदधीत्य श्रवणमनननिदिध्यासनानि नैरन्तर्येण कृत्वा प्रारब्धक्षयाद्देहत्रयभंगं प्राप्योपाधिविनिर्मुक्तघटाकाशवत्परिपूर्णता विदेहमुक्तिः । सैव कैवल्यमुक्तिरिति । अत एव ब्रह्मलोकस्था अपि ब्रह्ममुखाद्वेदान्तश्रवणादि कृत्वा तेन सह कैवल्यं लभन्ते । अतः सर्वेषां कैवल्यमुक्तिर्ज्ञानमात्रेणोक्ता । न कर्मसांख्ययोगोपासनादिभिरित्युपनिषत्
mumukṣavaḥ puruṣāḥ sādhanacatuṣṭayasampannāḥ śraddhāvantaḥ sukulabhavaṃ śrotriyaṃ śāstravātsalyaguṇavantamakuṭilaṃ sarvabhūtahiterataṃ dayāsamudraṃ sadguruṃ vidhivadupasaṃgamyopahārapāṇayo'ṣṭottaraśatopaniṣadaṃ vidhivadadhītya śravaṇamanananididhyāsanāni nairantaryeṇa kṛtvā prārabdhakṣayāddehatrayabhaṃgaṃ prāpyopādhivinirmuktaghaṭākāśavatparipūrṇatā videhamuktiḥ | saiva kaivalyamuktiriti | ata eva brahmalokasthā api brahmamukhādvedāntaśravaṇādi kṛtvā tena saha kaivalyaṃ labhante | ataḥ sarveṣāṃ kaivalyamuktirjñānamātreṇoktā | na karmasāṃkhyayogopāsanādibhirityupaniṣat
«People seeking freedom, endowed with the fourfold means, having faith — having duly approached, with gifts in hand, a true teacher, of good family and well-versed, fond of scripture, guileless, intent on the good of all beings, an ocean of compassion — and having duly studied the hundred and eight upaniṣads, and performing hearing, reflection, and assimilation without break, upon the exhaustion of what has begun attain the dissolution of the three bodies; and completeness, like the space of a pot freed from its limiting condition, is bodiless liberation. This itself is liberation-aloneness. Hence those too who dwell in the world of Brahmā, having heard vedānta from the mouth of Brahmā, attain aloneness together with him. Thus liberation-aloneness for all is declared by knowledge alone, and not by deeds, sāṅkhya, yoga, and worship».
66c7882e64b4 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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The first chapter ends in prose, and in it are two places that must be examined apart, for one is excellent and the other is the very thing we have spoken against through the whole collection. Excellent is the description of the teacher. He is śāstra-vātsalya-guṇavān, «fond of scripture»: the word vātsalya means a cow's tenderness for her calf.
He is akuṭila, «guileless», literally «unbent». He is sarva-bhūta-hite-rata, «intent on the good of all beings». He is dayā-samudra, «an ocean of compassion».
Worth noting that of the four marks, three concern character, and only one concerns learning; and this, I think, is the best description of a teacher in the whole collection. Now the second. It is said: sarveṣāṃ kaivalya-muktir jñāna-mātreṇoktā; na karma-sāṅkhya-yogopāsanādibhiḥ, «liberation-aloneness for all is declared by knowledge alone, and not by deeds, sāṅkhya, yoga, and worship».
That is, upāsanā, worship, is directly excluded. And here it must be said outright, for this place contradicts this very book. At the eighteenth verse it was said that one living evilly receives sālokya from worship of the name; at the twenty-fifth — that all four kinds of liberation come mad-upāsanayā, «from worship of me».
That is, the first chapter, twenty verses above, ascribed everything to worship, and here takes it away. The explanation, I think, is the same one given at reading many books: before us is a compilation, and the closing prose is written by a hand of a different bent than the verses. The Vaishnava side holds these verses its own, and this prose — not; and it is entitled to, for the verses are spoken by Rāma, and the prose is ascribed to no one.