SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
vyāmiśreṇeva vākyena
buddhiṁ mohayasīva me
tad ekaṁ vada niścitya
yena śreyo ’ham āpnuyām
‘It seems as if thou confusest my understanding by thy ambiguous speech? Tell me one thing decidedly, by which I may derive supreme blessedness.’
‘If thy opinion be that knowledge (or cultivation of spiritual wisdom by the intellect) is superior to work (or physical performance of duties as means to Moksha), why then dost Thou enjoin Me to engage in terrible deeds (like war)?’ The purport of this is:-
‘Intellectual Discipline or Path, or Path of Knowledge (Jñāna-nishṭhā) – is the means by which to accomplish ātmā-vision. Work-discipline (Karma-nishṭhā)=bodily activities) lead to the Knowledge-Path. The Knowledge-Path, it was shown, is to be acquired by abstracting all the senses and the mind from their objects: sound etc. If then it holds that ātmā-vision is to be effected (immediately) by the sense-and-mind discipline above alluded to, then I ought to be instructed how to practice this Intellectual Mode (or Knowledge-Path), by abstaining entirely from all active work. But instead, why dost Thou command me to engage in all kinds of violent and such-like acts requiring the use of all the faculties of sense and mind?’
‘Hence, I fancy, as if Thou art imposing upon me with Thy duplicate language!’ The language is verily equivocal inasmuch as the intellectual Path to achieve ātmā-vision consists in the annulment of all the sense-and-mind faculties, whereas Thy speech ordains me to embark them on actual work. Hence tell me a single (i.e., consistent) unequivocal word, by which I may know from certainty the exact course to pursue, and achieve (thereby) the highest good.’
The Lord said:-
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