Vivek Chudamani

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

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of publicity, in the seclusion of guru-śisya relation and in the privacy of one's being is possible perhaps for one in a million. For, as the Bhagavan said in Gitā:14
INTRODUCTION
manuṣyāṇām sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye
yatatāmapi siddhānāṁ kaśchinmām vetti tattvataḥ
Śrī Madhusudana Sarasvati, the celebrated Kṛṣṇabhakta and Advaitin in one, explains this sloka thus: "Among thousands qualified by their śāstraic knowledge and punyakarma, perhaps some one, who has acquired nityānityavastuviveka as the result of the good deeds in several lives, endeavours to attain siddhi ensuing upon dawn of jñāna through purity of mind. Among such sadhakas some one obtains sākṣātkāra of Me as the fruition of his śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana, and as non-different from his pratyagātman having learnt from his guru's upadeśa of the mahāvākyas like tattvamasi etc. Among innumerable men, he who adopts the jñānasadhana is extremely rare; even among such, it is very rare to find one who has reaped the fruit of his jñānaniṣṭhā."15
Whatever may be true of other persons, the present writer is by no means thus qualified. He rests in the hope, that it may be given to him by the grace of Sri Bhagavatpada and of the great Acaryas who have followed in his pontifical succession and bear his holy name to come, in his future lives, ever so little near the consummation celebrated in śruti and taught by the Brahmaniṣṭhas down the ages. In all the future births that he may have to take, may the śāstra of this study be Śāriramīmāmsā-Inquiry into the Atman, the God of his worship Śrī Candrasekhara and his teacher Śrī Samkarācārya.16
śāstram śārīramīmāmsā devaḥ Sri Candrasekharaḥ ācāryaḥ Samkarācāryaḥ ṣantu me sarvajanmasu 11
14 मनुष्याणां सहस्त्रेषु कश्चिद्यतति सिद्धये ।
यततामपि सिद्धानां कश्चिन्मां वेत्ति तत्त्वतः ॥
15 मनुष्याणां शास्त्रीयज्ञानकर्मयोग्यानां सहस्त्रेषु मध्ये कश्चित् एक अनेकजन्मकृतसुकृतसमासादितनित्यानित्यवस्तविवेकः सन् यतति यतते । सिद्धये सत्त्वशद्धिद्वारा ज्ञानोत्पत्तये । यततां यतमानानां ज्ञानाय, सिद्धानां प्रागजितसकृतानां साधकानाम् अपि मध्ये कॅश्चिद् एकः, श्रवणमनननिदिध्यासनपरिपाकान्ते माम ईश्वरम्, वेत्ति साक्षात्करोति तत्त्वतः प्रत्यगभेदेन तत्त्वमसीत्यादिगुरूपदिष्टमहावाक्येभ्यः । अनेकेषु मनुष्येषु आत्मज्ञानसाधनानुष्ठायी परमदुर्लभः, साधनानुष्ठायिष्वपि मध्ये फलभागी परमदुर्लभ, इति कि वक्तव्य - मस्य ज्ञानस्य माहात्म्यभित्यभिप्रायः ।
16 शास्त्रं शारीरमीमांसा देवः श्रीचन्द्रशेखरः । आचार्याःशंकराचार्याः सन्तु मे सर्वजन्मसु ।।