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 71

VIVEKACUDAMAŅI
23
By the next sloka, it is stated that karmas do not secure the preeminent objective of mokşa (liberation), that through the purification of the citta (mind), it is the external means to jñāna.
11
चित्तस्य शुद्धये कर्म न तु वस्तूपलब्धये ।
वस्तुसिद्धिविचारेण न किंचित् कर्मकोटिभिः ॥११॥ cittasya śuddhaye karma na tu vastupalabdhaye vastusiddhirvicāreņa na kimcit karmakoţibhiḥ 11
Karma is intended for purification of the mind, not for understanding the nature of an object. Knowledge can be obtained only by reflection; not even a little bit of it can be known by performing even a crore of karmas.
The meaning of this is clear. 10
12
That vicāra or proper enquiry is the means to know a thing as it really is, is explained by an example.
सम्यग्विचारतः सिद्धा रज्जुतत्त्वावधारणा।
Trulfen- ETH-Hagafaaliferait 119811 samyagvicārataḥ siddhā rajjutattvävadhāraņā 1 bhrāntyoditamahāsarpa-bhavaduḥkhavināśini il
By proper reasoning the conviction about the reality of the rope is gained. This puts an end to the great misery of samsāra caused by the serpent which arose by delusion.
It is well known that a man filled with fear due to his thinking that the rope which he saw in the twilight was a serpent, gets rid of the fear and the trembling when he understands the truth about the object by proper examination by the light of a lamp. The serpent that arose in the rope due to delusion, the grief (and fear) caused by such misapprehension-both these are destroyed by proper examination. That is called rajjutattvävadhștih, the conviction of the truth about the rope. In the same way samyagvicāra is ap plied to the destruction of the grief of repeated birth and death which is samsāra produced by delusion. Such samyagvicāra has for
10 This sloka is intended to convey that karmas do not possess the capacity to lead to the supreme objective of liberation and that, as means to purification of mind, they are external auxiliaries.