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 72

VIVEKACŪDAMAŅI
its effect the conviction about the truth of the ātman which is the nature of the direct realisation of Brahman. Thus the analogy of the rope-serpent delusion is fulfilled in every respect.
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The śloka is intended to convey that the means to obtain conviction of truth can arise only by listening to the words of a beneficent person (āpta) and then by self-inquiry based on that and not by any other action.
अर्थस्य निश्चयो दृष्टो विचारेण हितोक्तितः ।
न स्नानेन न दानेन प्राणायामशतेन वा ॥१३॥ arthasya niscayo drsto vicāreņa hitoktitah ma sămema na dũnema prānāgāmasatema cũ |
The conviction of the truth is seen to arise only from inquiry and the trustworthy upadeśa, not by bath or gift or by hundreds of breathing exercises (breath-control).
A man is subject to self-delusion due to the defect of ajñāna. The means of rescue from such delusion by the words of a beneficent person are not available to him. Hence, he is subject to the evils of fear and trembling. In this condition, he is not in a fit state of mind to make an inquiry on his own. Hence, to start him on it, the words of a beneficent person are the means. Being beneficient (hitatva) indicates the utterance of the correct significance (yatārtha-vaktstvam). What is conveyed by this is this: Without making an inquiry in accord with the words of a beneficent person (hitokti), if a deluded person performs baths, makes gifts and does hundreds of prāņāyāmas, there will not be any direct perception which alone can remove the delusion. How then will the delusion which leads to a number of undesirable effects ever disappear?
Vicāra is a mental operation which conduces to the conviction of the actual nature of an object. Therefore, it is inquiry arising out of listening to the words of a beneficent person which will lead to right understanding in respect of the object of delusion. That being so, the teaching of Śri Bhagavatpāda here is this in this context: Having inquired about the ātman following the words of the śruti and the upadeśa of the guru, getting direct perception of its true nature, one should disentangle the ātman from samsāra which is the non-ātman which has been superimposed on it.