SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ
yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam
ubhau tau na vijānīto
nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate
Both of them lack understanding, he who thinketh this ātmā to be the destroyer and he who thinketh it as the destroyed. For (ātmā) neither killeth nor is killable.
Whoever fancies that anyone can be an instrument for killing ātmā, and whoever fancies that ātmā is killable by any cause, both of them are short of wisdom. For reasons stated (already) that ātmā is of eternal character etc., it can never be the cause of destruction; ergo, ātmā can never destroy. The root hanti, to kill, connotes an act which requires ātmā as its object. But the act is expressive of that which causes a separation, viz: separation of ātmā from body’.
The Śāstra-injunctions such as:
‘No creature shall be harmed’.[1. ‘Na himsyād bhūtani.’]
‘No brāhmaṇa shall be killed’[2. ‘Brāhmaṇo na hantavyah.’] etc.
are but expressions indicating that, unlawfully, no separation of ātmās from bodies shall be caused.
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