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VIVEKACODAMANI
itah konvasti müdhātmā yastu svārthe pramadyati durlabhaṁ mānuşam dehaṁ prāpya tatrāpi pauruşam ! pathantu śāstrāņi yajantu devän
kurvantu karmāņi bhajantu devatāḥ 1 åtmaikyabodhena vină vimuktih
na siddhyati brahmaśatāntare'pi il amytatvasya nāśāsti vittenetyeva hi śrutiḥ bravīti karmaņo mukteḥ ahetutvam sphuţam yataḥ 11
3 These three are difficult to obtain: to be born as a man, to have the longing for release and the association with great souls. They are the results of divine grace.
4 He who, having somehow obtained this rare human birth, and more than that, birth as a male and with correct knowledge of śruti does not strive for liberation is a fool who kills his own soul. He kills himself by involvement in what is not real.
Who is a greater fool than this, who, having obtained birth as a human being and that as a male, is forgetful of his own interests?
6 Let one read the śāstras, sacrifice to the gods, perform karmas or meditate on the divinities; liberation will not arise even after hundreds of brahmakalpas without knowledge of the unity of ātman.
The śruti declares that there is no hope of immortality merely by worldly goods. Hence, it is clear that karma cannot be the cause of liberation.
Because birth as a male human being can be secured only as a result of merit earned through many lives in the past, because a man should not be unconcerned about his own spiritual welfare, because liberation is of the nature of absolute bliss in which there is complete negation of all sorrow, because such liberation does not arise by mere study of the karmakānda portion of the Vedas and acting in