Tripura Rahasya

After Sri Dattatreya had finished, Parasurama again asked respectfully: Lord, what further did that brahmin ask Hemangada and how did the latter enlighten him? The account is very interesting and I desire to hear it in full. Then Sri Datta, the Lord of Mercy, continued the story: Vasuman asked Hemangada as follows:

Prince! I shall ask you a question. Please answer me. I learnt about the Supreme Truth from Ashtaka and later from you. You are a Sage; but still, how is it that you go out hunting? How can a Sage be engaged in work? Work implies duality; wisdom is non-duality; the two are thus opposed to each other. Please clear this doubt of mine. Thus requested, Hemangada spoke to the Brahmin

as follows:

O Brahmin! Your confusion owing to ignorance has not yet been cleared up. Wisdom is eternal and natural. How can it be contradicted by work? Should work make wisdom ineffective, how can wisdom be useful any more than a dream? No eternal good is possible in that case. All this work is dependent on Self-awareness (i.e., wisdom). Being so, can work destroy wisdom and yet remain in its absence? Wisdom is that consciousness in which this world with all its phenomena and activities is known to be as an image or series of images; the duality essential for work is also a phenomenon in that non-dual awareness. There is no doubt that a man realizes the Self only after purging himself of all thoughts, and that he is then released from bondage, once for all. Your question has no basis and cannot be expected of the wise.

Then the Brahmin continued further:

True, O PRince! I have concluded that the Self is pure, unblemished Intelligence. But how can it remain unblemished when will arises in it? Will is modification of the Self, giving rise to confusion, similar to that of a snake in a coil of rope.

Listen, O Brahmin! You do not yet clearly distinguish confusion from clarity. The sky appears blue to all alike whether they know that space is colorless or not. Even the one who knows speaks of the blue sky but is not himself confused. The ignorant man is confused whereas the man who knows is not. The latter's seeming confusion is harmless, like a snake that is dead. His work is like images in a mirror. There lies the difference between a sage and an ignorant man. The former has accurate knowledge and unerring judgment, whereas the latter has a blurred conception and his judgement is warped. Knowledge of Truth never forsakes a sage although he is immersed in work. All his activities are like reflections in a mirror for, being Self-realized, ignorance can no longer touch him.

Wrong knowledge, due to sheer ignorance, can be corrected by true knowledge; but wrong knowledge, due to a fault, cannot be easily corrected. So long as there is diplopia the eyesight will be blurred and many images of a single object will be seen. Similarly, so long as there is prarabdha unaccounted for, the manifestation of the world will continue for the jnani, though only as a phenomenon. This will also vanish as soon as the prarabdha has played itself out and then pure, unblemished intelligence alone will remain. Therefore I tell you, there is no blemish attached to a jnani, though he appears active and engaged in worldly duties.