Talk On Vivek Chudamani

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

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is not produced, nor the Knowledge created, as a result of the finite actions, however noble, divine and great they may be.
सम्यग्विचारतः सिद्धा रज्जुतत्त्वावधारणा।
भ्रान्तोदितमहार्सपभयदुःखविनाशिनी ॥१२॥ samyagvicāratah siddhā rajjutatvāvadhāraņā bhrāntoditamahāsarpabhayaduhkhavināśinī 12.
AANZIA: - by steady and balanced thinking, then is gained, Foldca 3770ROTT - the ascertainment of the truth of the rope, Er alfarHETARE E QARTA - ( which is ) the destroyer of delusion-createdhorrible-snake-fear and sorrow.
The fear and sorrow created by the delusory “serpent on the rope” can be ended only after fully ascertaining the truth of the rope which is available for recognition only through steady and balanced thinking.
Why the discovery of the Self is not possible through karma' and how this is possible through right thinking is being explained here by the famous analogy of the 'serpent and the rope.” In Vedanta, this example is often quoted to make the student understand how the names and forms created through ignorance of the Reality could end upon the re-discovery of the Truth beneath them. In the dusk, an approaching traveller misunderstands an innocent rope to be a serpent that has bitten him. The serpent-delusion is created in the mind of the traveller because of his ignorance of the rope-reality. It is never possible that a traveller, who has seen the rope as such, could also have the fear and the sorrow of the serpent bite.
Having thus bitten by a delusory serpent, the individual, so long as he is in his delusion, suffers the agony of a snakebite and, if left alone, shall exhibit symptoms of bloodpoisoning, but the traveller is advised to make an enquiry into his delusion. Faithful friends or dear and near relatives will approach the deluded one and exclaim, "Oh! it is only a bit of a rope". The individual accepts this statement as a possibility upon his faith in the friend.