Vivek Chudamani

SR No.: 007022
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan
Publication Year: 1988
Total Pages: 552
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 114

66
VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
invoking the guru's condescension (krpayā śrūyatām) first and then putting the question to him, the guru's compassion and gentleness are ensured and the earnest desire of the sisya for quickly attaining knowledge is also indicated. The insistence on 'from your lips' shows that the śişya has no other person to go to.
51
को नाम बन्धः कथमेष आगतः
कथं प्रतिष्ठाऽस्य कथं विमोक्षः। कोऽसावनात्मा, परमः क आत्मा
तयोविवेकः कथमेतदुच्यताम् ॥५१॥ ko nāma bandhaḥ kathamesa āgataḥ
katham pratişthā'sya katham vimokṣaḥ ko'sāvanātmā, paramaḥ ka ātmā
tayorvivekaḥ katham etaducyatām 11 The śişya asks:
What is bondage? How did it arise? How does it continue to exist? How is one to get rid of it? What is this anātmā? Who is the Paramātmā? How is one to distinguish between the two? Pray, vouchsafe all this to me.
First the sişya questions on the nature of bondage, because if that is known, release from it by appropriate means will be easy. By asking how it arose, he asks about the cause of that bondage. He further asks how it continues to exist for a long time. pratişthā: existence since a long time. katham : wherefore? by what reason? vimokşah : cessation. The guru referred in the previous sloka to paramātmanaḥ tava and anātmabandha : you who are the Paramātman and bondage by the non-atman. So the śişya asks: What is this anātman and what is the Paramātman? Because it was said in śloka 49, tayorvivekodita 'arising by discrimination between them.' He asks how does knowledge of the distinction between the two arise? He implores that instruction about all this may be kindly imparted to him at length.
From the brief statement of the guru, the sisya has a vague idea that he is really the Paramātman and that his association with the anātman is due to ajñāna. He has also some idea of how it arose. Aprat from the little knowledge that he has acquired by hearing the words that the fire of discrimination will burn away the effects of ajñāna completely, he has not obtained full knowledge free from