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 179
अध्यासदोषात्पुरुषस्य संसृतिः
अध्यासबन्धस्त्वमुनैव कल्पितः ।
रजस्तमोदोषवतोऽविवेकिनो
जन्मादिदुःखस्य निदानमेतत् ॥ १७९ ॥adhyāsadoṣātpuruṣasya saṃsṛtiḥ
adhyāsabandhastvamunaiva kalpitaḥ |
rajastamodoṣavato'vivekino
janmādiduḥkhasya nidānametat || 179 ||179. Man’s transmigration is due to the evil of superimposition, and the bondage of superimposition is created by the mind alone. It is this that causes the misery of birth etc., for the man of non-discrimination who is tainted by Rajas and Tamas.
Notes:
[Superimposition—This is the favourite theme of the Vedanta Philosophy, to explain how the ever-free Self came to be bound at all. The whole thing is a mistaken identity’', a self-hypnotism, it says, and the way out of it lies in de-hypnotising ourselves. ]