|| तत्वबोध -- 15||

Student: तत्वविवेकः कः? guru:आत्मा सत्यं तत् अन्यत् सर्वं मिथ्या इति |TB-15|

Here the student asks the teacher," what is this thatva vivEkam?" 

You may recall that the teacher in the opening lines first said I am goint to teach thathva vivEka which going to liberate mumukshUs..! now he gracefully introduces the termthatva vivEkam again.. so the student zeroes in on the next term he does not understand which is thatva vivEkam..

To that guru very CLEVERLY ANSWERS,"MY DEAR CHILD..! AthmA.. alone is sathyam. other than that everything else is mithyA..!!"

First when he talked about sADhana cathushtayam, he said "nithyam vasthu Ekam brmha, thath vyathiriktham sarvam anithyam Eva" and now he says about AthmA..!!

Here itself, a student, if he is a uththama aDhikAri understands that AthmA (himself) is the ONLY sathyam like the eternal brmhan.. and that everything else is perishable so unlike AthmA, this everything else is mithyA..!

THIS IS ACTUALLY THE END OF TEACHING.. !

But the guru is very kind and goes on further until this student is analyzed by the SAsthram to the finest degree that he is capable of assimilating..

Once this analysis is done, the jiva has NO doubt whatsoever about himself, the jagath, and god..!

These are the ONLY three things in creation that matters.. this is also the beauty of TB as a complete text.. UNLIKE the one-topic prakaraNa granthAs, and we have countless of such granthAs. 

Here to terms are introduced.. one is sathyam and the other is mithyA..

This sathyam mithyA confusion alone is responsible for bondage, also known as the coil of birth and death, also known as samsAram, or as mIrA sings "Bava sAgar".

TB and the guru dry up this ocean of samsAram.. how? We shall see..!!
.