Vivek Chudamani

Author(s): Chandrashekhar Bharti Swami, P Sankaranarayan
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidyabhavan

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Xxii
VIVEKACŪDĀMAŅI
(iv) it is compacted of guņas. (v) it is impure. (vi) it does not exist in all the three periods of Time and is
subject to modification. (vii) it is delimited by space, time and objects. (viii) it is seen and later not seen; it is of dịşta-naşțasva
bhāva.la (ix) it is produced, krtaka, i.e., it is an effect.
(x) it is the known, not the knower. (xi) it is ruled, not the ruler. (xii) it is dependent, not self-subsistent.
Having thus eliminated all that is anātman, the guru proceeds to help the sişya to determine the nature of the atman. Prefacing his teaching with the statement that the ātman, thus separated from the three kinds of bodies, is inmost, apart and beyond them all, he conveys to the sisya that it is the self-existent, the eternal, the reference of what is signified by aham, the I, the witness of the three mental states, different from the pañcakośas (the five sheaths), vibhu (allpervasive), illumining all, the inmost self of the sādhaka, beginningless, of the nature of Existence, Knowledge and Bliss Absolute..
The guru takes up the first question now, and answers that bondage (bandha), is due to the identification of the ātman with the anātman due to ajñāna, that is, mistaking all things which are anātman as being the ātman and directing the activities of one's life in quest of the things which are not the ātman.
Turning to the second question, how this bondage arose, it is taught that it is due to two powers of ajñāna—āvaranasakti to be traced to its tāmasic component which conceals the real nature of the ātman and the viksepaśakti resulting from its rājasic component which projects the non-ātman as the ātman.
Reverting to the fourth question and expounding at length what was said in brief earlier, the guru proceeds to explain the nature of the ātman, unveiling it from the sheaths of the pañcakośas, namely, the annamaya, prānamaya, mānomaya, vājñānamaya and ānānda maya kośas—the bodily, the vital, the mental, the intellectual and the blissful sheaths. In the process, he also provides the answer to seventh question of the sisya, namely: How is one to distinguish bet
Ta naša adarśane: the root naś is employed to indicate not being seen.