Atma - 23-Rāgecchā sukhaduḥkhādi

Atmabodha Commentary by Swami Paramarthananda

(Verse 23)
rāgēcchāsukhaduḥkhādi buddhau satyāṁ pravartatē | suṣuptau nāsti tannāśē tasmād buddhēstu nātmanaḥ ||

As I said earlier, rāga dvēṣa etc. are supposed to be manōmaya dharmās but here the Ācārya takes the rāga dvēṣas as buddhi dharmās or vijñānamaya dharmās. And these attributes are also superimposed upon the Ātmā. Rāgā means attachment; icchā or kāmā or desire. The difference between rāgā and icchā is that rāgā is attachment to thing which is already ours –prāpta viṣayē rāgaḥ, whereas icchā is a desire for a thing not yet acquired by us i.e. aprāpta viṣayē icchā or kāmaḥ.
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Similarly sukhaṁ means pleasure. Duḥkhaṁ means pain. Here we should carefully note that the Ācārya gives sukhaṁ as the Anātmā karmā which is superimposed upon Ātmā. Rāgā does not belong to Ātmā and therefore, it is superimposed. Icchā does not belong to Ātmā and therefore, it is superimposed. Duḥkhaṁ does not belong to Ātmā and therefore, it is superimposed. All these are clear.

But if we say sukhaṁ is superimposed on Ātmā, what would that mean? Ātmā doesn’t have sukhaṁ, whereas we say Ātmā is ānanda svarūpaḥ. So, therefore, we should understand that the sukhaṁ that is talked about here is the Janya sukhaṁ or vṛtti sukhaṁ. Janya sukhaṁ means the sukhaṁ which comes and goes, which is dependent on priya vṛtti, mōda vṛtti, and pramōda vṛtti. So, therefore, these three sukhaṁs belong to Anātmā and this Janya sukhaṁ we see superimposed on the Ātmā. “I was happy yesterday but I am not happy today”. The happiness that ‘I’ enjoyed was temporary happiness and that temporary happiness belonged to manas and not the Ātmā.

Now Ācārya is answering a question of a naiyyāyikā – a nyāyā philosopher. And according to nyāyā philosophy, rāga, icchā, sukhaṁ, duḥkhaṁ etc. are Ātmā dharmāḥ, the properties of Ātmā and he says Ātmā is saguṇaḥ, dravyaṁ etc. In this ślōkā Śaṅkarācārya refutes the nyāyā philosopher by Anvaya vyatirēkā method. And what is that method? When buddhi is wakeful in jāgrata svapna avasthā– then rāga, icchā sukhaṁ, duḥkhaṁ etc. are there. buddhau satyāṁ rāgadvēśādayaḥ vartantē. This is what is called anvayaḥ. Whereas in suṣuptau when the buddhi is resolved, we find rāga, dvēśā etc. are not there. So both rāga and dvēśā are possible only when he is awake i.e when buddhi is awake. Buddhau satyāṁ rāga dvēśaḥ; buddhau asatyāṁ rāga dvēśaḥ na. The first one is called anvayaḥ. The second one is called vyatirēkā. And from this what do we know? Rāga dvēśa belong to buddhi alone. When buddhi is, rāga dvēśa is. When buddhi is not, rāga dvēśa is not. So, buddhi alone is the cause of rāga dvēśa.

Even though they do not belong to me, what does everybody say, “I am rāgi, I am dvēśi etc.” Ātmā doesn’t have rāga dvēśa but still they say ahaṁ rāgi etc. This, therefore, can happen only in one method and that is adhyāsēna ēva rāgadvēśādayaḥ āgacchanti svarūpataḥ abhāvāt adhyāsēna āgatāḥ iti niścitaṁ.
Always mukta