Vivekachudamani
by Shankara | 1921 | 49,785 words | ISBN-13: 9788175051065
The Vivekachudamani is a collection of poetical couplets authored by Shankara around the eighth century. The philosophical school this compilation attempts to expose is called ‘Advaita Vedanta’, or non-dualism, one of the classical orthodox philosophies of Hinduism. The book teaches Viveka: discrimination between the real and the unreal. Shankara d...
Verse 138
अतस्मिंस्तद्बुद्धिः प्रभवति विमूढस्य तमसा
विवेकाभावाद्वै स्फुरति भुजगे रज्जुधिषणा ।
ततोऽनर्थव्रातो निपतति समादातुरधिकः
ततो योऽसद्ग्राहः स हि भवति बन्धः शृणु सखे ॥ १३८ ॥atasmiṃstadbuddhiḥ prabhavati vimūḍhasya tamasā
vivekābhāvādvai sphurati bhujage rajjudhiṣaṇā |
tato'narthavrāto nipatati samādāturadhikaḥ
tato yo'sadgrāhaḥ sa hi bhavati bandhaḥ śṛṇu sakhe || 138 ||138. One who is overpowered by ignorance mistakes a thing for what it is not; It is the absence of discrimination that causes one to mistake a snake for a rope, and great dangers overtake him when he seizes it through that wrong notion. Hence, listen, my friend, it is the mistaking of transitory things as real that constitutes bondage.
Notes:
[Discrirnination—-between what is real (viz. the Self) and what is not real (viz. the phenomenal world).]