Tattvavivēkaḥ (तत्त्वविवेकः)
Discernment of Reality
That which is knowable is held to be of two kinds: independent and dependent. The independent is the Lord Viṣṇu, free from defects and possessing all good qualities. (1)
The dependent is stated to be twofold: being and absence. Absence is held to be threefold, according as it is prior, posterior, or perpetual. (2)
Because it has the nature of both positive existence and absence, mutual absence is not separate. Positive existence, in turn, is held to be twofold, namely sentient and insentient. (3)
The dependent conscious being, too, is precisely twofold: eternally liberated and associated with transmigration. Śrī is eternally liberated, while the one associated with transmigration is regarded as twofold. (4)
Indeed, here one is either liberated or unliberated. The liberated beings, extending up to Brahmā, are declared to be successively a hundredfold greater; Ramā, in all qualities, than them… (5)
She is eternally manyfold superior; Hari is infinitely superior to her. Among them, the unliberated are threefold, according to the distinction into low, middling, and high. (6)
And among them, the highest are fit for liberation, while the middling transmigrate eternally. The lowest are fit for eternal darkness. The insentient is held to be only twofold. (7)
According to the distinction between eternality and non-eternality, space, time, revelation, and the subtle form of the elements, senses, vital airs, and qualities are eternal. (8)
The modification of these is non-eternal; conscious beings, indeed, are exclusively eternal. Qualities, actions, universals, and the like are all properties of a thing. (9)
Form alone is twofold: that which is coextensive with the entity and that which is divided. In the divided form there is difference, while the form coextensive with the entity is unity and does not possess difference. (10)
Here, modification too is only a divided form of that which undergoes modification; precisely the same holds of effect and cause, and likewise of a quality and its possessor. (11)
Likewise with action and its possessor, and similarly with the universal and the particular; and indeed with the qualified and the pure, and just likewise also with the part and the whole. (12)
But whoever knows precisely thus—that all this without exception is dependent, always under Hari’s control—is indeed liberated from saṃsāra. (13)
Thus ends the Tattvaviveka, composed by the venerable Ānandatīrtha Bhagavatpādācārya.
