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 459
अजो नित्यः शाश्वत इति ब्रूते श्रुतिरमोघवाक् ।
तदात्मना तिष्ठतोऽस्य कुतः प्रारब्धकल्पना ॥ ४५९ ॥ajo nityaḥ śāśvata iti brūte śrutiramoghavāk |
tadātmanā tiṣṭhato'sya kutaḥ prārabdhakalpanā || 459 ||459. The Śrutis, whose words are infallible, declare the Ātman to be "birthless, eternal and undecaying". So, the man who lives identified with That, how can Prārabdha work be attributed?
Notes:
[“Birthless” etc.—The reference is to Katha Upanishad I. ii. 18.—“ajo nityaḥ śāśvato'yaṃ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre”—“The Atman is birthless, eternal, undecaying, and ever new (ancient), and is not destroyed when the body is destroyed.”]