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 235

VIVEKACUDAMANI
vivekavijñānavato mahātmano
brahmahamityeva matiḥ sadātmanaḥ ||
The fool thinks 'I am the body'. The śāstraic scholar has the sense of the 'I' in the body and the jiva (the soul). The mahātman who has knowldege born of discrimination always thinks of himself in the form: 'I am Brahman'.
The ordinary man thinks: 'I am this body; not anything different from it'. The scholar, however, who has acquired indirect knowledge of the atman from books has the sense of the 'I' in the body and jiva. He has the sense of the 'I' in the body for the purpose of practical life in the world and in the jīva different from the body for performing the sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. (That is, he calls his body his 'I' for worldly concerns; for other-wordly concerns, to enjoy in other worlds the fruits of the sacrifices that he performs, he considers his jiva, apart from the body, as the 'I').
crimination.
vivekavijñānavataḥ: to the man who has discriminated between the atman and the anatman, to the man of knowledge by which the misimpression of the atman in the anatman has been removed and who has acquired direct realisation of that knowledge.
vivekavijñānam:
vivekāt vigñānam: knowledge born of dis
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mahātmanaḥ: of him whose atman is devoid of the three kinds of limitations (of place, time and things, desapariccheda, kālapariccheda and vastupariccheda). Previously, the sense of the ātman existed in the sheaths which are delimited and are of the nature of the anatman. So, he was alpa, small. Now, however, due to perfect and correct knowledge, the man considers his ätman to be devoid of the three kinds of delimitations. (So, he is mahātmā.) Vide the śrutis: yatra nanyat paśyati, nanyat śṛnoti, nanyat vijānāti sa bhūmā | yatra tvasya sarvamātmaivābhut tat kena kam pasyet 11 (Chand.): "Where one does not see another, does not hear another, does not know another, that is the Infinite. Where to him everything was the ātman, what will he see by what?" To such a person, in respect of his atman there is always the conviction leading to the realisation: 'I am Brahman'. matiḥ anubhavaḥ: experience,
realisation.
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Therefore,
अनात्मबुद्धि त्यज मूढबुद्धे ! त्वङमांसमेदोऽस्थिपुरीषराशौ ।
सर्वात्मनि ब्रह्मणि निर्विकल्पे कुरुष्व शान्ति परमां भजस्व ॥ १६३ ॥