Vivekachudamani 337

कः पण्डितः सन्सदसद्विवेकी 

श्रुतिप्रमाणः परमार्थदर्शी । 

जानन्हि कुर्यादसतोऽवलम्बं 

पातहेतोः शिशुवन्मुमुक्षुः ॥ ३३६ ॥ 

kaḥ paṇḍitaḥ sansadasadvivekī 

śrutipramāṇaḥ paramārthadarśī | 

jānanhi kuryādasato'valambaṃ 

svapātahetoḥ śiśuvanmumukṣuḥ || 

(Sankaracarya's Vivekachudamani 337) 

Who being learned, able to discriminate between the Real and the unreal, believing the Vedas as authority, fixing his gaze upon the Self, the Supreme Reality, and being a seeker after liberation, will, like a child, consciously run after the unreal, which will surely be the cause of one‘s downfall?

The Lord at once took the position of the teacher and chastised the student, calling him, indirectly, a fool. The Lord said, “You are talking like a learned man, but you do not know that one who is learned – one who knows what is the body and what is soul – does not lament for any stage of the body, neither in the living nor in the dead condition.” As explained in later chapters, it will be clear that knowledge means to know matter and spirit and the controller of both. Arjuna argued that religious principles should be given more importance than politics or sociology, but he did not know that knowledge of the matter, soul, and the Supreme is even more important than religious formularies. And because he was lacking in that knowledge, he should not have posed himself as a very learned man. As he did not happen to be a very learned man, he was consequently lamenting for something which was unworthy of lamentation. The body is born and is destined to be vanquished today or tomorrow; therefore the body is not as important as the soul. One who knows this is actually learned, and for him there is no cause for lamentation, regardless of the condition of the material body.