60 VIVEKACHUDAMANI
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��139. This veiling power {Avriti) , which preponderates in ignorance, covers the Self, whose glories are infinite and which manifests Itself through the power of knowledge, indivisible, eternal, and one without a second, — as Rahu does the orb of the stin.
[ As Rdhu &c. — The reference is to the solar eclipse. In Indian mythology the sun is supposed to be periodically overpowered by a demon named Rahu. ]
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140. When one's own Self, endowed with the purest splendour, is hidden from view, a man through ignorance falsely identifies himself with this body, which is non-self. And then the great power of Rajas called Vikshepa^ the projecting power, sorely afflicts him through the binding fetters of lust, anger etc.
[ Projecting power^^StQ note on Sloka 1 1 1 . ]
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