api saṃrādhane pratyakṣānumānābhyām ..3.2.24..

SUTRA III. 2. 24.

 

अपि संराधने प्रत्यक्षानुमानाभ्याम्॥३.२.२४॥

api saṃrādhane pratyakṣānumānābhyām ..3.2.24..

 

… Api, oven though, also; not so. The word ‘Api’ sets aside the Purvapaksha. .. Samradhane, in conciliation, in an intensely devout worship. … Pratyaksha, as apparent, as directly perceptible, through Revelation. … Anumanabhyam, and from inferences (i.e., through the Smriti).

 

24. In devout love, (the Lord even becomes visible to the eves, etc., of the devotee, as is taught in the) Shruti and the Smriti.

 

COMMENTARY

 

The word ‘Api’ is used in a depreciative sense. The above Purvapaksha is not even worthy of consideration. In Samradhana or absorbed devotion, the Lord becomes perceptible even to the eyes, etc., of the devotee. How do you know this ‘i Through Revelation (Pratyaksha or the Direct statement of the Vedas), and through Inference or the indirect inferential statements of the Smritis. Thus the Katha Shruti says (II., 4. 1):

The self-existent created the senses with outgoing tendencies; therefore, the man sees external objects and not the Internal Self, but the wise, with the eye averted from external objects and desirous of immortality, beholds the Self Within.

So also in Mundaka Upanishad (III., 1. 8):

He cannot be apprehended by the senses like the eye, nor by revealed texts, nor by the grace of any other shining one, nor by austerities and work. Through the grace of wisdom, the pure in heart, see Him who is partless, in their meditation.

This also shows that the Lord becomes visible to His wise and loving devotee.

So also in the Gita (XI., 53 and 54):

Nor can I be seen as thou hast seen Me, by the Vedas, nor by austerities, nor by alms, nor by offerings.

But by devotion to me alone I may thus be perceived, Arjuna, and known and seen in essence, and entered, O Parantapa.

Thus it is established that the Blessed Hari is perceptible to the senses even, when the soul is full of entire love. The eyes, etc., then become saturated with His essence and become fit to see Him, and so He is seen through such purified eyes.

This being so, the force of Era in ‘…’ «He is to be apprehended by the mind alone» is not that of exclusion of other means of knowing Him, but teaches that the mind also can know Him. [The word Era should be translated by even and not by only. He can be known by the mind even.]

It does not mean that the senses, like the eye, etc., cannot comprehend Him. They also can comprehend Him, under certain circumstances.