Talk On Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chinmayanand Swami
Publisher: Chinmay Publications Trust

Page 16

लब्ध्वा - having gained, कथंचित् - somehow, नरजन्म - human birth, दुर्लभम् - rare, तत्रअपि - there too, पुंस्त्वम् - masculine temperament, श्रुति पारदर्शनम् - complete knowledge of the scriptures, यः तु - whoever, 3ITCHYTI. for Self-realisation, aga - shall not strive, #GET: - the foolish, #: - he, fe- indeed, 3ITCHET - commits suicide, स्वम् - himself, विनिहन्ति - kills, असद्ग्रहात् - clinging to the unreal.
Is there a man who having, by some unknown luck, gained a human embodiment and there too, having obtained a masculine temperament; and then as luck would have it, a complete knowledge of the Scriptures, who is foolish enough not to strive hard for Self-realization? He verily commits suicide clinging himself to things unreal.
The stanza indicates that having been born with a human form, having procured the necessary masculine qualities of the head and heart, when such an individual has also gained a thorough study of the deep significances of the scriptural techniques, if he has not got the enthusiasm to walk the sacred path and dash into the Divine Goal of selfperfection such an individual, alas, commits himself but suicide. Having gained such a rare chance a chance, one in a million—if he is not ready to catch hold of the occasion and invest it in a most profitable manner, he is indeed committing Hara Kiri and such a squanderer of life is very fittingly termed by Sankara as a "dull fool” — Mūdhadhihi.
How does one commit this senseless suicide? It is because of one's false attachments with the objects of the world as available for him when he looks out into Truth from the 'parapet-walls of his body and mind. Forgetting his own Real Nature as the All-pervading Consciousness, he comes to misunderstand himself to be the matter envelopments which are nothing but thought-created encrustrations around the Divine in him. When perceived thus through the prism of the body, mind and intellect, he sees the Truth splashed and splintered into endless plurality and these objects give a delusory enchantment to the senses and the mind. To satisfy these urges of his physical body and his inner mind, the individual runs after the objects. Necessarily,