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 518
महास्वप्ने मायाकृतजनिजरामृत्युगहने
भ्रमन्तं क्लिश्यन्तं बहुलतरतापैरनुदिनम् ।
अहंकारव्याघ्रव्यथितमिममत्यन्तकृपया
प्रबोध्य प्रस्वापात्परमवितवान्मामसि गुरो ॥ ५१८ ॥mahāsvapne māyākṛtajanijarāmṛtyugahane
bhramantaṃ kliśyantaṃ bahulataratāpairanudinam |
ahaṃkāravyāghravyathitamimamatyantakṛpayā
prabodhya prasvāpātparamavitavānmāmasi guro || 518 ||518. O Master, thou hast out of sheer grace awakened me from sleep and completely saved me, who was wandering, in an interminable dream, in a forest of birth, decay and death created by illusion, being tormented day after day by countless afflictions, and sorely troubled by the tiger of egoism.
Notes:
[Sleep—of Nescience, which also creates the ‘dream,’ two lines further on.
Forest—i. e. difficult to come through.
Day after day: It is a well-known fact that even a short dream may, to the dreamer’s mind, appear as extending over years.]