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 155
पूर्वं जनेरधिमृतेरपि नायमस्ति
जातक्षणः क्षणगुणोऽनियतस्वभावः ।
नैको जडश्च घटवत्परिदृश्यमानः
स्वात्मा कथं भवति भावविकारवेत्ता ॥ १५५ ॥pūrvaṃ janeradhimṛterapi nāyamasti
jātakṣaṇaḥ kṣaṇaguṇo'niyatasvabhāvaḥ |
naiko jaḍaśca ghaṭavatparidṛśyamānaḥ
svātmā kathaṃ bhavati bhāvavikāravettā || 155 ||155. It does not exist prior to inception or posterior to dissolution, but lasts only for a short (intervening) period; its virtues are transient, and it is changeful by nature; it is manifold, inert, and is a sense-object, like a jar; how can it be one’s own Self, the Witness of changes in all things?
Notes:
[Manifold—not a simple, and subject to constant transformations.]