Acharya on Mumukshu - Part 9 of 15

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I said a weakling cannot attain the Atman.

In that Upanishad, in the mantras before that, it details, in a sense, the defining characteristics of a mumukShu.

Whosoever, not having any other desires, chooses, as DhIras, to woo only the Atman, to them does the Atman manifest Itself – says the Upanishad.

“To woo only the Atman”, as is said here, is the positive aspect of mumukShutA. In opposition to a renunciation of samsAra out of disgust, what we do here is to identify something, with love, as most desirable for us – this is what is called ‘varaNaM’ (choosing).

It is a ‘svayam-vara’ by us whereby we choose the Self after having discarded all that is non-Self. The Upanishad mentions here the goal as well as the interest in it as a pleasant, blissful, positive fact.

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