Vivek Chudamani

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

Page 64

16
VIVEKACUDAMAŅI
blished in Brahman, completely withdrawn from whatever is nonātman (anātman) and non-sat (asat).
With reference to the prescription to seek a guru for Brahmavidyā, the śruti declares: tadvijñānārtham sa guirumevābhigacchet samitpānih śrotriyam brahmaniștham: (Katha) "For knowing it (Brahman), with due humility with the sacrificial twig in the hand, one should approach a guru who is well-versed in śruti and who has realised Brahman." ananyaprokte gatiratra nāsti anīyān hyatarkyam aņupramāņāt: (Katha) "As the ultimate Reality is infinitely subtle, not to be known by argument, and of infinitesimal dimension, when it is declared by one who has realised that there is nought beside it, then all ajñāna will vanish; he has nothing else to know and the flow of samsāra will stop." It is only a guru of this kind who can have knowledge of the pure ātman free from the blemishes of doubt etc. This is as it should be; for, in the world, the road to a place has to be learnt from one who knows it. Even if one tries to discover it oneself unaided, doubt about it has to be dispelled only by reference to another who knows it already. In this matter, we have the authority of the dialogue between suka and Janaka. In the Yoga Vāsiştha it is said that even though suka had gained knowledge of whatever was to be known as a result of the merit which accrued to him from good actions done in previous births, and though he was well taught by his own father, Vyāsa, his mind got firmly anchored in Brahman only after he listened to the words of the Videha King Janaka who was a supremely realised soul. Even so, as the guru is non-different from Brahman which is of the nature of sat, he too is of the nature of sat.
As the guru is sat, he is spoken of in the next word as mahān. Mahat here means not divided or confined within limits as a result of the discrimination of the five sheaths. The guru has realised that he (i.e., his ātman) is beyond the limitations of the five sheaths of which he is constituted. So, he is aparicchinna, undelimited, i.e., he is beyond limitations, a mahān.
Or, the word mahān may be understood as referring to the guru who possesses all the virtues spoken of in śāstra. For, it will be said infra: śrotriyah, avrjinaḥ, akāmahataḥ, yo brahmaviduttamaḥ ahetukadayāsindhuḥ bandhurānamatāṁ satām 11 brahmanyuparatasśānto nirindhana ivānalah 1 : "The guru is well-versed in śruti, he is without blemish, is unaffected by desires; he is one who has realised Brahman; he is eminent and bestows his grace without the stimulus of any particular reason; he is the refuge of the good who make obei