The verse and its meaning · Gaudapada's Karika · Gaudapada — Not Two

Not this, not this

Gaudapada Karika 3.25

संभूतेरपवादाच्च संभवः प्रतिषिध्यते । को न्वेनं जनयेदिति कारणं प्रतिषिध्यते ॥ स एष नेति नेतीति व्याख्यातं निह्नुते यतः । सर्वमग्राह्यभावेन हेतुनाजं प्रकाशते

Meaning · English

Birth is refused, because scripture itself denies that anything comes to be. "Who could have begotten it?" So a cause is refused as well. This Self, taught by "not this, not this," sets aside everything that can be named. Because nothing here can be grasped, the unborn shows itself.

Three words carry the verse. Apavada is a taking-back, from apa, away, and vad, to speak: scripture first says something, then speaks it away. Neti neti is na iti, "not this, not this". Agrahya means what cannot be seized, from a-grah, to grasp. Gaudapada says the Self has no birth, and gives two reasons. First, scripture denies that anything truly comes to be. Second, birth needs a begetter, and he asks, "Who could have begotten it?" If no cause can be found, there is no birth. Nagarjuna also argues against a cause that gives rise to things, and the two arrive by different roads. Then he turns to the phrase "not this, not this". The Upanishad uses it to describe the Self. It works by setting aside every description one by one: body, breath, mind, name. Shankara reads it as removing what has been laid over the Self, not as describing some further thing. Whatever you can take hold of is dropped. Whatever cannot be taken hold of is the unborn, and it needs no proof, because it is what remains and shows itself. Gaudapada teaches this because the question just before it is how anything can come from the unborn. His answer is that nothing does. The verse asks the listener to see that the unborn is not one more object to be found.

Picture clearing a dining table: plates, bills, a vase, a cloth, each lifted away and set aside. The table was under them all along and never needed to be put there. The clearing is the denial of "not this, not this", and the bare table is the unborn Self.

1. Tonight, sit for five minutes with a pen and paper. Write one thing you call yourself, such as your job, your role in the family, or your mood. 2. Beside each, write "not this" and let it go. Do about six. 3. Stop and notice what is still there, aware of the list being written. Do not name it. 4. Do this once a day for a week and notice whether the list gets easier to put down.

A retired schoolteacher wakes on her first Monday with no bell to answer. For thirty years she was "Ma'am". Standing in the kitchen she feels emptied out, as if nobody is left. The verse gives her a different way to look at that moment. She can take each label in turn: teacher, the one people ask, the one with a timetable. She can say of each, "this I do, not this I am", the way scripture lays down each description and then takes it back. Each time, something stays: the one who notices the kitchen, the kettle, the quiet. Gaudapada teaches that this noticing was never given by the job and so cannot be taken with it. Ordinary experience agrees that people feel less lost when they can tell their roles apart from the one who plays them. The limit is plain. The verse does not make the empty morning pleasant, and it does not replace friends, work, or a doctor if the low mood lasts for weeks. It offers a place to stand while the labels change.

अर्थ · हिन्दी

In this book

• Before: Born by maya alone · Gaudapada Karika 3.23
• Next: A barren woman's son · Gaudapada Karika 3.27
• All of Gaudapada's Karika · Ask Krishna about it

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