Mandukya Karika, verse 4.27

Sanskrit text, IAST transliteration and English translation

निमित्तं न सदा चित्तं संस्पृशत्यध्वसु त्रिषु ।
अनिमित्तो विपर्यासः कथं तस्य भविष्यति ॥ २७ ॥

nimittaṃ na sadā cittaṃ saṃspṛśatyadhvasu triṣu |
animitto viparyāsaḥ kathaṃ tasya bhaviṣyati || 27 ||

27. The mind does not enter into causal relation in any of the three periods of time. How can the mind be ever subject to delusion, as there is no cause for any suck delusion?

Śaṅkarà’s Commentary

(Objection)—The mind appears as the jar, etc., though such objects are non-existent. Therefore there¹ must exist false knowledge. Such being the case, there must be right knowledge somewhere (in relation to, or as distinguished from, false knowledge which we point out).

(Reply)—Our reply to this contention is as follows:—The mind certainly does not come in contact with a cause—an external object—in any of the three periods of time, past, present or future. If the mind had ever truly come in contact with such objects then such relation would give us an idea of true knowledge from the standpoint of Reality. And in relation to that knowledge the appearance of the jar, etc., in the mind, in the absence of the jar, etc., could have been termed as false knowledge. But never does the mind come in contact with an external object (which does not in reality exist). Hence how is it possible for the mind to fall into error when there is no cause for such an assumption? In other words, the mind is never subject to false knowledge. This² is, indeed, the very nature of the mind that it takes the forms of the jar, etc., though in reality, such jar, etc., which may cause the mental forms, do not at all exist.

Anandagiri Tika (glossary)

¹ There must, etc.—Otherwise one could not be aware of the external jar, etc., which do not really exist. One cannot be aware of wrong knowledge unless one knows what right knowledge is. The opponent intends to prove the positive existence of Avidyā which causes illusory knowledge.

² This is, etc.—This is what is known as Avidyā or the ignorance of the the nature of Reality. On account of this ignorance the mind, which is the same as the non-dual Ātman, appears to take the form of the external objects. This false knowledge is not a correlative of true knowledge. This false knowledge regarding the existence of the external objects is due to the ignorance of the nature of Reality. Seeking after the cause of Avidyā is itself the characteristic of the ignorant mind which has not yet been able to free itself from the delusion of causality.