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...

सुषुप्तिकाले मनसि प्रलीने
नैवास्ति किंचित्सकलप्रसिद्धेः ।
अतो मनःकल्पितेव पुंसः
संसार एतस्य न वस्तुतोऽस्ति ॥ १७१ ॥

suṣuptikāle manasi pralīne
naivāsti kiṃcitsakalaprasiddheḥ |
ato manaḥkalpiteva puṃsaḥ
saṃsāra etasya na vastuto'sti || 171 ||

171. In dreamless sleep, when the mind is reduced to its causal state, there exists nothing (for the person asleep), as is evident from universal experience. Hence man’s relative existence is simply the creation of his mind, and has no objective reality.

 

Notes:

[Universal experience—The subject has been touched on already. See Sloka 121, ante.]

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