七月十六日，星期二
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
（由弟子S·E·沃尔多小姐记录）
1895年7月16日，星期二。（商羯罗）
"不可见之因"（即微细印象之总和）引导我们走向祭祀与崇拜，而祭祀与崇拜又产生可见的果报；但要获得解脱/Moksha，我们必须先闻，然后思考或推理，然后冥想梵。
行为的果报与知识的果报是两种截然不同的事物。"应当做"与"不应当做"是一切道德的根基，但它们实际上只属于身体和心意。一切幸福与苦痛都与感官不可分割地交织在一起，而要体验它们就必须有身体。身体越高等，道德标准越高，直至梵天；但一切有情皆有身体。只要有身体存在，就必然有乐有苦；唯有摆脱了身体，才能超越苦乐。真我/Atman是无身的，商羯罗如是说。
没有任何法律能使你自由，你本就是自由的。如果你尚未拥有自由，则没有任何事物能赐予你自由。真我是自明自照的。因果无法触及它，而这种无身性即是自由。超越过去、现在与未来的，就是梵。作为一种结果，自由将毫无价值；它将是一种复合物，因此本身就含有束缚的种子。自由是唯一真实的要素。它并非有待获得之物，而是灵魂的本来面目。
然而，行为与崇拜是必要的，它们能移除遮蔽，解除束缚与幻相。它们并不赋予我们自由，但若没有我们自身的努力，我们就不会睁开双眼看清自己的本来面目。商羯罗进一步说，不二吠檀多/Advaita-Vedanta是吠陀的最高荣耀；但较低层次的吠陀同样是必要的，因为它们教导行为与崇拜，许多人通过这些途径来到主的面前。另有一些人则无需任何辅助，直接通达不二/Advaita。行为与崇拜通向与不二/Advaita同一的终极目标。
经典无法教授神，但它们能摧毁无明；其作用是否定性的。既持守经典，又开辟通向自由之路——这是商羯罗的伟大成就。然而归根结底，这不过是一种精微的辨析。应先给人以具体之物，然后循序渐进地将他提升至最高境界。这正是各种宗教的努力所在，也解释了它们的存在及其各自适合于某一发展阶段的原因。那些经典本身就是它们所帮助消除的无明的一部分。它们的职责是驱除笼罩在知识之上的无明。"真理将驱逐虚妄。"你本是自由的，无需被造就为自由。只要你还执着于信条，你就尚未拥有神。"自以为知者，实则一无所知。"谁能认识那认识者？存在中有两个永恒的事实——神与宇宙，前者不变，后者变化。世界永恒地存在。当你的心无法把握变化的程度时，你便称之为永恒。……你看到石头，或石头上的浮雕，但不会同时看到两者；然而两者本是一体。
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你能使自己哪怕静止一秒钟吗？一切瑜伽行者都说你能。……
最大的罪过就是认为自己软弱。没有人比你更伟大：应当觉悟到你就是梵。除了你赋予它的力量之外，没有任何事物拥有力量。我们超越太阳、星辰和宇宙。应当宣说人的神性。否定邪恶，不要创造邪恶。站起来说：我是主人，万物的主人。锁链是我们自己铸造的，也唯有我们自己能打破它。
没有任何行为能赋予你自由；唯有知识能使你解脱。知识是不可抗拒的；心意无法接受它或拒绝它。当知识来临时，心意只能接受它；因此它并非心意的作为，只是它的表达呈现在心意之中。
行为或崇拜是为了将你带回你自身的本性。认为真我就是身体，这完全是幻相；因此即使身处此身之中，我们也能获得自由。身体与真我毫无共同之处。幻相就是以假为真——而非"一无所有"。
English
(RECORDED BY MISS S. E. WALDO, A DISCIPLE)
TUESDAY, July 16, 1895. (Shankara)
The "unseen cause" (Or mass of subtle impressions.) leads us to sacrifice and worship, which in turn produce seen results; but to attain liberation we must first hear, then think or reason, and then meditate upon Brahman.
The result of works and the result of knowledge are two different things. "Do" and "Do not do" are the background of all morality, but they really belong only to the body and the mind. All happiness and misery are inextricably connected with the senses, and body is necessary to experience them. The higher the body, the higher the standard of virtue, even up to Brahma; but all have bodies. As long as there is a body, there must be pleasure and pain; only when one has got rid of the body can one escape them. The Atman is bodiless, says Shankara.
No law can make you free, you are free. Nothing can give you freedom, if you have it not already. The Atman is self-illumined. Cause and effect do not reach there, and this disembodiedness is freedom. Beyond what was, or is, or is to be, is Brahman. As an effect, freedom would have no value; it would be a compound, and as such would contain the seeds of bondage. It is the one real factor. Not to be attained, hut the real nature of the soul.
Work and worship, however, are necessary to take away the veil, to lift oh the bondage and illusion. They do not give us freedom; but all the same, without effort on our own part we do not open our eyes and see what we are. Shankara says further that Advaita-Vedanta is the crowning glory of the Vedas; hut the lower Vedas are also necessary, because they teach work and worship, and through these many come to the Lord. Others may come without any help but Advaita. Work and worship lead to the same result as Advaita.
Books cannot teach God, but they can destroy ignorance; their action is negative. To hold to the books and at the same time open the way to freedom is Shankara's great achievement. But after all, it is a kind of hair-splitting. Give man first the concrete, then raise him to the highest by slow degrees. This is the effort of the various religions and explains their existence and why each is suited to some stage of development. The very books are a part of the ignorance they help to dispel. Their duty is to drive out the ignorance that has come upon knowledge. "Truth shall drive out untruth." You are free and cannot he made so. So long as you have a creed, you have no God. "He who knows he knows, knows nothing." Who can know the Knower? There are two eternal facts in existence, God and the universe, the former unchangeable, the latter changeable. The world exists eternally. Where your mind cannot grasp the amount of change, you call it eternally. . . . You see the stone or the bas-relief on it, but not both at once; yet both are one.
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Can you make yourself at rest even for a second? All Yogis say you can. . . .
The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. No one is greater: realise you are Brahman. Nothing has power except what you give it. We are beyond the sun, the stars, the universe. Teach the Godhood of man. Deny evil, create none. Stand up and say, I am the master, the master of all. We forge the chain, and we alone can break it.
No action can give you freedom; only knowledge can make you free, Knowledge is irresistible; the mind cannot take it or reject it. When it comes the mind has to accept it; so it is not a work of the mind; only, its expression comes in the mind.
Work or worship is to bring you back to your own nature. It is an entire illusion that the Self is the body; so even while living here in the body, we can be free. The body has nothing in common with the Self. Illusion is taking the real for the unreal — not "nothing at all".
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。