Sample of the Original- Viveka Choodamani (in 1225 words)

[Guest guest]

Hari Om,

 

 

On 17th May, on the occassion of Sankara Jayanti, Shri

Harshanand took the trouble of posting a full English transalation of

Vivekachoodamani along with several commentaries about him by luminaries such as

Nehru and Heads of Sanakara maths.

 

 

Form his posting, I give an edited version of Vivekachoodamani in 1225 words

(original- 20,050 words) - which is 6% of original which has 580 verses. It has

all the subject title headings to follow the flow and would take no more than 15

minutes to go through carefully. I take the liberty of posting it as several

members on the list simply assume that by saying "I am self" one becomes

advaitin. They forget about discarding the five vestures/ sheaths. The process

is more involved. There is a methodology laid out by AdiSanakara and explained

in detail. Before I post the Vedanta and Advaita simplified notes as part of

"draft for Primer for Beginners in Advaita" it is better to know that the full

course is quite long and takes more effort than just repeating " I am self".

 

 

Adi Sankara himself mentions the connection between his intepretations and Hindu

scriptures. So the connection between the two is not contrived but very much

real. For example, Einstein's Theory of Relativity cannot be mastered even by a

German Jew, if he were just a student of Music, He needs to have a good

grounding in Physics & Mathematics to understand it. Similarly, knowing or

feeling "I am self" is not good enough without a proper understanding of Vedanta

& scriptures. This is not a rejoinder to Ed's posting for he is genuinely

more advanced mumuktsu than what I am, but just a point of view.

 

VIVEKA CHUDAMANI OF SRI ADI SHANKARA

First Steps on the Path

1) PROLOGUE (Verses 1 – 15)

For beings, a human birth is hard to win, then manhood and holiness, then

excellence in the path of wise law; hardest of all to win is Wisdom.

 

2) THE FOUR PERFECTIONS (Verses 16 – 34)

He is ripe to seek the Self who is full of knowledge and wisdom, reason and

discernment, and Dispassion; who has Restfulness and the other graces.

 

3) THE APPEAL TO THE HIGHER SELF (Verses 35 - 40)

The great good ones dwell in peace, Having crossed the ocean of the world, they

ever help others to cross over. For this is the very nature of the great-souled

ones (Mahatmas)

 

4) THE BEGINNING OF THE TEACHING (Verses 41 – 71)

Freedom is won by a perception of the Self's oneness with the Eternal, The first

cause of Freedom is declared to be a turning back from lust . Then Restfulness,

Control, endurance; a perfect Renouncing of all acts that cling and stain.

 

5) THE VESTURES (Verses 72 – 10)

Formed of the substances they call bone, fat, flesh, blood, skin (etc) is called

the physical vesture. Then these are the refined elements: the ethereal, the

upper air, the flaming, water, and earth. These when mingled one with another

become the physical elements, that are the causes of the physical vesture.

 

6) THE THREE POTENCIES (Verses 108 – 135)

The unmanifest is characterized by three potencies; it is the causal vesture of

the Self; dreamless life is the mode where it lives freely, all the activities

of the powers, and even of the knowing soul having sunk back into it.

 

7) BONDAGE AND FREEDOM (Verses 136 – 153)

Then, holding firmly mind, with knowing soul at rest, know your self with

yourself face to face saying "This am I." The life-ocean, whose waves are birth

and dying, is shoreless; cross over it, fulfilling the end of being, resting

firm in the Eternal.

 

8) THE FREEING OF THE SELF (Verses 148 - 154)

The Self, wrapped up in the five vestures beginning with the vesture formed of

food,. When the five vestures have been stripped off, the Self shines forth

pure, the one essence of eternal bliss, beheld within, supreme, self-luminous.

 

9) THE VESTURE FORMED OF FOOD (Verses 154 – 164)

The food-formed vesture is this body, which comes into being through food, which

lives by food, which perishes without food.

 

10) THE VESTURE FORMED OF VITAL BREATH (Verses 165 – 166)

The breath-formed vesture is formed by the life-breath determined by the five

powers of action;

 

11 ) THE VESTURE FORMED OF MIND (Verses 167 – 183)

The mind-formed vesture is formed of the powers of perception and the

mind; it is the cause of the distinction between the notions of "mine" and "I";

it is active in making a distinction of names and numbers;

 

12 ) THE VESTURE FORMED OF INTELLIGENCE (Verses 184 – 197)

The intelligence, together with the powers of intelligence, makes the

intelligence-formed vesture, whose distinguishing character is actorship; it is

the cause of man's circle of birth and death.

 

13) The Witness

THE MANIFEST AND THE HIDDEN SELF (Verses 198 – 209)

Beginningless is unwisdom, and all its works are too; but when wisdom is arisen,

It is thus seen that, though without a beginning, unwisdom comes to an end,

 

14) THE PUPIL SAID: (Verses 210 – 240)

When the five veils are thus set aside through their unreality, what then is to

be known as anything by him who knows Self and not-self?

THE MASTER SAID:

That is to be self-witness, where anything is enjoyed by itself; therefore the

universal Self is witness of itself; no other lesser thing is witness of it.

In waking, dreaming, dreamlessness, that Self is clearly manifested,

appearing through its universal form always as "I," as the "I" within,

uniformly.

 

15) THAT THOU ART (Verses 241 – 251)

The Eternal and the Self, indicated by the two words "that" and "thou," when

clearly understood, according to the Scripture "THAT THOU ART," are one; their

oneness is again ascertained. As being essentially pure consciousness, the

oneness between the Real and the Self is known by the awakened;

 

16) THE MANIFEST AND THE HIDDEN SELF (Verses 252 – 268)

Untouched by the six infirmities, reached in the heart of those that seek for

union, reached not by the organs, whose being neither intellect nor reason knows

-- this is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART; become it in the Self.

 

17) Finding the Real Self

BONDAGE THROUGH IMAGINATION (Verses 269 – 276)

Recognizing as thine own the hidden Self, the witness of the soul and its

activities, perceiving truly "That am I," destroy the thought of Self in all not

Self.

 

18) SELFHOOD TRANSFERRED TO THINGS NOT SELF (Verses 277 – 298)

By resting ever in the Self, the restless mind of him who seeks union is

stilled, and all imaginings fade away; therefore make an end of transferring

Selfhood to things not Self.

 

19) THE REAL IN THINGS UNREAL

As the space in a jar in universal space, so the Self is to be merged without

division in the Self supreme;

 

20) Power of Mind-Images (Verses 299 – 378)

As long as the Self is in bondage to the false personal self of evil, so long is

there not even a possibility of freedom,

 

21 Free Even in Life (Verses 379 – 438)

This is the self luminous, witness of all, ever shining through the veil of the

soul; making the one aim this Self, that is the contrary of all things unreal,

realize it by identification with its partless nature.

 

22) The Three Kinds of Works (Verses 439 – 468)

He who through wisdom discerns that there is no division between the, Eternal

and the manifested world, bears the mark of one who is free even in life. From

the knowledge that I am the Eternal, the accumulated Works , heaped up even

through hundreds of ages, melt away like the work of dream, on awaking.

 

23) Master and Pupil (Verses 469 – 518)

That, whose nature no man can define; where is no pasturage for mind or word;

one, verily, without second, is the Eternal; All-embracing, illumining all

things; under all forms all-present, yet outside all; everlasting, pure,

unmoved, unchanging, is the secondless Eternal; and what that is, I am.

 

24) The Perfect Sage (Verses 519 – 548)

This world is the offspring of the Eternal's thought; thus, verily, the Eternal

is the Real in all things. Behold it thus by the vision of the higher Self, with

mind full of peace, in every mode of being.

 

25) For Ever Free (Verses 549 – 56)

THE SERPENT'S SLOUGH

But the body he has left, like the cast-off slough of a snake, remains there,

moved hither and thither by every wind of life. The body of the sage who has

become the Eternal is consumed away, even before it has fallen to the ground

 

26) E SELF ENDURES (Verses 562 – 574)

Indestructible, verily, is the Self -- thus says the scripture of the Self,

declaring that it is not destroyed when all its changing vestures are destroyed.

 

27 ) BENEDICTION (Verses 575 – 580)

This secret of secrets supreme, the perfect attainment, the perfection of the

Self, has been shown to thee by me today; Thus is ended THE CREST-JEWEL OF

WISDOM, made by the ever-blessed SANKARA.

 

 

Pranams

 

 

P.B.V.Rajan

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[Guest guest]

In a message dated 6/3/2002 3:29:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

pbvrajan writes:

 

< . . . 15) THAT THOU ART (Verses 241 - 251)

The Eternal and the Self, indicated by the two words "that" and "thou," when

clearly understood, according to the Scripture "THAT THOU ART," are one;

their oneness is again ascertained. As being essentially pure consciousness,

the oneness between the Real and the Self is known by the awakened; . . . >

 

Ah! Thank you. I have just found and blown the dust off my copy of

Vivekacûdâmani, something out of a big spending spree at Molital Banarsidass

Books, some three decades ago. Yes, this must have caught my attention as I

see that the book bindings are well broken, but I never then had the energy

or inclination to get into the Sanskrit directly, which I suspect is really

very necessary to catch all the even more significant innuendos of subtlety.

 

I think we could sit for a year or two, here or elsewhere, going through this

immense document, Sanskrit word for Sanskrit word, but I doubt that there is

sufficient motivation anywhere. Even so, if such a thing were to be done, it

would perhaps be best to do it with Yoga Sutras, Siva Sutras, and/or Bhagavad

Gita, as these are probably more universal forms of expression that are known

to more folks.

 

However, the 'tat tvam asi' quotation that you included (above) caught my eye

and I just cannot resist short commentary. Thou art That, yes, but who is

Thou and what is That? The commentary here that I have by Swami

Madhavananda, Advaita Ashrama, Himalayas, explains (verse 241-242): "If thus

the Sruti, in the dictum, 'Thou art That' (Tat-Tvam-Asi), repeatedly

establishes the absolute identity of Brahman (or Isvara) and Jiva, denoted by

the terms That (Tat) and Thou (Tvam) respectively, divesting these terms of

their relative associations, then it is the identity of their implied, not

literal, meanings which is sought to be inculcated: for they are of

attributes contradictory to each other -- like the sun and a glow-worm, the

king and a servant, the ocean and a well, or Mount Meru and an atom."

 

I have little idea, quite, what the intention is here. But even if a bit

more light might be found in finding the context surrounding these verses,

nevertheless, another problem surfaces; it would seem that the quoted

statement above is some combination of both Sanskrit translation and

Commentary.

 

Understand, there is no disrespect being showered here; it is just that such

a text is not of great value to learn. I would assume that Swami was

speaking to a small group of students and that some of the sayings were

copied down to publish. I presume that the students were quite familiar with

tat tvam asi, as being presented by swami. So, of course, there is no

problem at the ashram. Yet, I remain in relative ignorance about what the

Sanskrit is actually saying and how Swami is interpreting the Sanskrit, both.

 

Also, much or most of several book shelves of the Vedic Sanskrit works that I

have accumulated seem to have been translated into English in the mid 19th

century, often by Harvard and Oxford scholars, who we know have had no idea

of what they were translating most of the time, less for meticulously

adhering to the grammar rules of Paininni (sp), which I am told, don't always

apply to Veda anyhow. If Hindu folks did some of the translating, who might

have known a bit more, or considerably more, about what was happening, even

then the translation often suffered because of limited fluency in English, not

to mention the severe limitations because of brahman caste secrecy. So the

whole avidya story keeps spreading itself over and over again, something like

the plague, or entropy of thermodynamics, or as some esoterics might say, as

the blind leading the blind.

 

So the real challenge seems to be to personally experience and differentiate

(ahah! that 'viveka' expression) what different aspirants said and taught,

and then to put it to a universal modern day vocabulary with relevant and

practical expressions for the simultaneous good of self and the world. The

world must be included, otherwise, no good of it can come to self.

 

jai guru dev,

 

Edmond

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Rajanji's gesture is very much appreciated.

 

However, I wish the introductory lines about "those who assume "I am

Self"" had better been avoided. I know many wise advaitins who have

not read Sankara, least of all "Vivekachoodamani" which many believe

was not authored by him. Possibly, there are several such

enlightened persons on this List too. Besides, there are many

forceful advaitins who do not attach much importance to the five

sheaths etc. Why then prescribe syllabi/qualifications and sit in

judgement of others?

 

Pranams.

 

Madathil Nair

 

_______________

 

 

advaitin, "pbvrajan" <pbvrajan@i...> wrote:

> Hari Om,

> I take the liberty of posting it as several members on the list

simply assume that by saying "I am self" one becomes advaitin. They

forget about discarding the five vestures/ sheaths. The process is

more involved. There is a methodology laid out by AdiSanakara and

explained in detail. Before I post the Vedanta and Advaita simplified

notes as part of "draft for Primer for Beginners in Advaita" it is

better to know that the full course is quite long and takes more

effort than just repeating " I am self".