अतस्ते स्वावबोधार्थं तत्तावत्कथयाम्यहम् । उत्पत्तिः संसृतावेति पूर्वमेव हि यो यथा ॥ ८ ॥
atastē svāvabōdhārthaṁ tattāvatkathayāmyaham | utpattiḥ saṁsṛtāvēti pūrvamēva hi yō yathā || 8 ||
Translation
So, for your own awakening, I shall tell it now: how birth comes about in saṁsāra, and how the Self was before.
Word by word
- atas
- (ataḥ) so
- tē
- your
- sva
- own
- avabōdha
- awakening
- arthaṁ
- for
- tat
- that
- tāvat
- now
- kathayāmi
- shall tell
- aham
- I
- utpattiḥ
- birth
- saṁsṛtau
- in saṁsāra
- ēti
- comes about
- iti
- how
- pūrvam
- before
- ēva
- indeed
- hi
- and
- yō
- (yaḥ) who
- yathā
- how
Meaning
The commentary: since bondage is only from not knowing one's own nature, I tell of the seen world in what follows, to show that it cannot really be. Arising belongs to the world of the seen, not to the Self, which stays as it was before the seen arose, without the least change. It quotes the verse of Gauḍapāda: there is no dissolution and no arising, no one bound and no one striving, no seeker of freedom and no one freed; this is the highest truth.