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 168
पञ्चेन्द्रियैः पञ्चभिरेव होतृभिः
प्रचीयमानो विषयाज्यधारया ।
जाज्वल्यमानो बहुवासनेन्धनैः
मनोमयाग्निर्दहति प्रपञ्चम् ॥ १६८ ॥pañcendriyaiḥ pañcabhireva hotṛbhiḥ
pracīyamāno viṣayājyadhārayā |
jājvalyamāno bahuvāsanendhanaiḥ
manomayāgnirdahati prapañcam || 168 ||168. The mental sheath is the (sacrificial) fire which, fed with the fuel of numerous desires by the five sense-organs which serve as priests, and set ablaze by the sense- objects which act as the stream of oblations, brings about this phenomenal universe.
Notes:
[The sacrificial fire confers on the Yajamána, or the man who performs the sacrifice, the enjoyments of the heavenly spheres. So the mind also confers on the Jiva or individual soul the pleasures of the objective world.
It is the mind that projects the objective universe—this is the plain meaning. See Sloka 170, below.]