Distilled Consciousness - Bhishma's stuti in the Mahabharata; Nilakantha's commentary cites the Vārtika

[V Subrahmanian]

https://archive.org/details/mahabharata_nk/page/n2871/mode/2up

In the Mahabharata, Bhishma, just as he is giving up his body, offers a profound stuti to Krishna. A core Vedantic point is expressed there:

आत्मज्ञानमिदं ज्ञानं ज्ञात्वा पञ्चस्ववस्थितम् |

यं ज्ञानेनाभिगच्छन्ति तस्मै शानात्मने नमः || verse 77

  "This knowledge is knowledge of the Self (ātmajñāna), known as abiding in the five — by which knowledge they attain Him; salutation to that Self who is of the nature of knowledge (jñānātman)."  

Nīlakaṇṭha comments:

आत्मेति । शब्दादिविषयको यो बोधः स विषयमनन्तर्भाव्य आत्मस्वरूपभूतमेव ज्ञानम् । यथोक्तम् - 

परागर्थप्रमेयेषु या फलत्वेन संमता । संवित्सैवेह मेयोऽर्थो वेदान्तोक्तिप्रमाणतः' इति ॥ ईदृशमेव यं, ज्ञानेन ज्ञानसाधनवाक्येन ॥ ७७ ॥  

"The cognition (bodha) that has sense-objects such as sound etc. as its content, having subsumed (anantarbhāvya) that object, is itself knowledge (jñāna) that is of the very nature of the Self (ātmasvarūpabhūta). As has been said  by  Sureshwaracharya in the Brihadāraṇyaka Vārtika 159: 'That awareness (saṃvit) which is regarded as the fruit (phala) in the cognition of external objects of knowledge, is itself the object (Brahman-Atman) to be known (meya) here, as established by Vedānta, the supreme authority.' Such indeed is the 'knowledge' (jñāna) referred to — meaning: by the sentence (vākya) that is the means of knowledge (jñānasādhana)." — [verse 77]

The idea is that even in the commonplace cognition of sense objects, it is the Pure Consciousness, Brahman Atman, that is cognised, only tainted by the objects. The Kenopanishad 2.4 too teaches the same in this passage:

प्रतिबोधविदितं मतममृतत्वं हि विन्दते । आत्मना विन्दते वीर्यं विद्यया विन्दतेऽमृतम् ॥  

Om Tat Sat

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Subbu ji.

The idea is that even in the commonplace cognition of sense objects, it is the Pure Consciousness, Brahman Atman, that is cognised, only tainted by the objects. 

Yes. This is the celebrated topic of Advaita Vedānta which goes by the name सन्मात्रग्राहिप्रत्यक्ष.

The idea is this. The object of ignorance is suddha-caitanya. The table, cloth, Russian-language are not the object of ignorance. They are not अज्ञात. It is only the shuddha-caitanya which is अज्ञात. Now, ignorance is removed by knowledge. So, knowledge also has to have only shuddha-caitanya as the object. 

When we say ignorance-of-A, it means that it is ignorance of shuddha-caitanya with A as the avacchedaka. This is removed by knowledge-of-A which means knowledge of shuddha-caitanya with A as the avacchedaka.

So, when there is cākṣuṣa-pratykṣa of table, it is basically pratyakṣa of table-avacchinna-caitanya.

Regards,

Sudhanshu Shekhar.