Māyāvādakhaṇḍanam (मायावादखण्डनम्)

Refutation of the Doctrine of Illusion

Narasimha, the sun that dispels the darkness of all doctrines of ignorance, triumphs—the ocean of immeasurable true knowledge, bliss, and power.

“The subject under dispute ought not to be undertaken, because it presents matters otherwise. Whatever is of this kind is so, as in the case of what is agreed upon.”

For, on that position, the identity of Brahman and the self is not real: if it is distinct from essential nature, nonduality is abandoned; if it is not distinct, then, because the self is self-luminous, there is the establishment of what is already established. Because the self is devoid of attributes, there is no previously unapprehended attribute. And because the essential nature is already established and there is no attribute, ignorance does not obscure anything whatsoever.

“A valid means of knowledge is that which apprehends a previously unapprehended object.”

And thus is their position.

Precisely because ignorance is impossible, that doctrine is entirely refuted. And if unity were false, scripture would communicate what is unreal, while difference would be real. In precisely the same way, the purpose too is ruled out, because liberation is the essential nature and is already established. Since the fourth type is absent owing to the impossibility of ignorance, even the status of being a fifth type is ruled out. The qualified person too is ruled out precisely because subject matter and purpose are absent; and the relation too, precisely because that person is absent.

There are these two puruṣas in the world: the perishable and, indeed, the imperishable. All beings are the perishable; the unchanging one is called the imperishable.

But the highest Person is another, declared to be the Supreme Self—the immutable Lord who, having entered the three worlds, sustains them.

Since I have transcended the perishable and am superior even to the imperishable, I am therefore renowned in the world and in the Veda as the Supreme Person.

Whoever, undeluded, knows me thus as the Supreme Person is a knower of all and worships me with his entire being, O Bhārata.

Thus this most secret teaching has been declared by me, O sinless one. Having understood this, one would become wise and one who has done what was to be done, O descendant of Bharata.

The sense objects are indeed higher than the senses, and the mind is higher than the sense objects; but the intellect is higher than the mind, and the great self is higher than the intellect.

The unmanifest is higher than the Great; the Person is higher than the unmanifest. Nothing is higher than the Person. That is the ultimate limit; that is the highest goal.

The complete aggregate is superior, as in the case of a sacrificial rite; and scripture likewise indicates this.

Thus, Viṣṇu’s status as the Supreme Person alone has been stated by the Lord and by Śruti as the purport of all śāstras. Thus, the omniscient sage has entirely dispelled the darkness of Māyāvāda by Tattvavāda, for the removal of the doubts of the virtuous.

There is none equal to Nārāyaṇa; none has ever been, nor will there be. By this true statement, I accomplish all aims.

Thus ends the Refutation of Māyāvāda, composed by the venerable Ānandatīrtha Bhagavatpādācārya.