Vivekachudamani by Sankaracarya
translations from Swami Dayananda
Viveka implies a lot of things. People go to the beach, in certain clothes; they do not go to their workplace in those clothes, because it is inappropriate. There are certain times that make certain things inappropriate. To be done or not that is Viveka. When we confront options, whether things are appropriate or inappropriate, Viveka needs to be used all the time.
Ultimate Viveka asks, what is atman what is one or satya how far is it true? What is atman Viveka. I am Viveka Chudamani. This is the crown jewel, it is discriminative inquiry leading to self knowledge and is attributed to Shankara.
The book has 500 verses we have chosen 100 verses. The topics are carefully chosen as the material is complete in itself. It often repeats. All the verses were collected together but have been written at different times.
Selected topic wise.
Viveka is inquiry, one inquiry is of a subject matter that is unknown or inadequately known. Once you make an inquiry that is Vichara. Viveka differentiates the nature of the inquiry about a subject matter that is not totally unknown. It is known but there is an erroneous conclusion. Then the inquiry is to understand what is what. When things are mixed up. Inquiry meant to clarify.
For example, this crystal appears red, if we take it as a red colored stone. It needs not Vichara but Viveka. This mistake is corrected when you come to know that the color of this object (crystal) is not of the crystal, but it belongs to something else. And once you have understood the object as a crystal, if your knowledge is crystal clear, let it appear in any form. Your knowledge of crystal is not altered. Knowledge must be clear, free from vagueness, complete then you have no problem. This inquiry which leads to the knowledge of crystal no matter what color it appears in, that is Viveka. It is a mistaken notion that it is a colored object, it is not an attribute of a crystal. The Swarupa or nature of the crystal being understood as one free from any color is Nirguna. Free from being any color in the spectrum.
The subject matter is yourself, when analyzing Swarupa. It helps you in understanding yourself. The self is not unknown. It is known and taken for granted. Can you put knowledge of self in your resume? Why should children go after self knowledge? Parents are practical and don’t understand how self knowledge is going to help any one. He blames her she blames him. What is self knowledge?
When you go to a psychoanalysist, he is not going to look at your face and advise you. He is going to get information from you. You are the only judge about yourself. No one else can tell you about yourself. You are the only means of knowing about your history. If the inner life is to be known about your history. How can there be a discussion of your self, in Viveka Chudamani or in its source book Vedanta.
You must be more than what you think yourself to be. It should be something that is not peculiar to you. It should be something common. How they work here they work elsewhere. They are common. Self is I, it is unknown to me. If it’s mistaken to be other than what it is known to be? One cannot afford to commit a mistake about oneself. What is insanity? It is a mistaken self identity. We are all sane, because we define sanity. If institutionalized people define sanity they would all be sane.
If I were you. Be careful of this sentence, I would be worst. I wouldn’t be a person, I would just melt away. The situation is not good at all, that you are sad is but proper, that you feel lonely it is ok. The therapist tells you that you are lonely. Nobody understands you because you are such a profound person. I am not criticizing the therapist; I would do that as well to begin with. These are normal emotions angry, sad and depressed, in a competitive society you have to be like this. You have to draw boundaries, don’t allow people to transgress boundaries, otherwise you became a doormat. There are workshops to help you to be successfully aggressive. Lots of people are aggressive but not successful. So these workshops are self esteem workshops. Are you going to put the self in a lake and make it nicer? What is the workshop? We don’t have respect for words? We are dealing with the precious self and we call it workshop.
I thought let me learn about workshops, and when I went to one, it was in a hotel room, with everyone sitting with a Coke and coffee in hand. Is that the respect that we have for the self. It reveals a certain way of thinking. To be successfully aggressive is normal.
So the subject matter of this book is the subject matter that is common to all. We have to unfold it. The self that is discussed here is unlike everything else-
There is no comparison possible. Incomparably comparable. It is like itself, like space is like space, sky is like sky. The self is like the self. There is no second self for comparison. I am the only self. You are the only self. There is no other self. I have a unique self subject to limitations.
The self is the only reality and everything else depends on that reality. Everything else does not omit anybody else. Out of sight out of mind like everything else. And so there is nothing else which is indicative of you. Everything that you confront, come to know, don’t know, everything is dependent entirely upon you.
When everything depends on you, you don’t depend on anyone else. Your being is totally independent of everything else, even though everything else depends on you.
You are free from everything, you are the whole.
You will find yourself whole then there is an investment involved a commitment it is futuristic. Wherever there is a rosy future for you there is an emotional and time investment. The book says you are the whole. You take yourself to be other than the whole. A mistake like this can never prove to be a blessing for you. Sometimes mistakes prove to be a blessing. What you didn’t want you got. Here you are committing a mistake against the fact if this fact. If you are the whole, the mistake against that reality will make you a loser. Whole means limitless. If you commit a mistake against the limitless, the mistake will be uniform. I am subject to limitations. A mistake against the limitless is a capital mistake and therefore, the subject matter. Our own experiences give us possibilities simple moments of happiness in spite of, against all the notions you see yourself as a happy person. This is experience. That’s why you want that experience again. This happy person is an advantageous person. Suddenly this happy person arrived. Not happiness arrived. Happiness in not an object. You only saw yourself as happy not related to me.
In a subject object situation you come across now and then. We make a thesis here perhaps you don’t need to fulfill all your wants and desires coming from your limitations in order to be happy.
The limitations one thought that are intrinsic to myself are not there perhaps, e.g. like the color of the crystal. These limitations belong to something else. They do not belong to me. In spite of all the limitations, I think I have. In the happy person I see a wholeness and completeness. The problem here is that person is the person. All the limitations that you throw upon yourself are part of your not recognizing that person. Because what is intrinsic to a properties in a person as long as fire is there its going to be hot, ashes, smoke need not be there. But the heat will be there. If I look at my limitations they are all variable.
Your age is variable; the place where you are now is variable. The place is variable I am a Californian but I am here. Time is variable. Your physical body is also variable it’s never the same it keeps on changing. Your mind don’t ask. Is also variable. Everything is variable. Therefore can you make a judgment about oneself? There is enough reason for you to explore what this book says.
That inquiry is Viveka there are many types of Viveka. Wherever there is confusion there is a Viveka, right or wrong dharma, appropriate or inappropriate, vrita conduct,
This is a prayer verse. It is a hard verse. Asmi, Pranotoasmi this is a verb. In understanding a verse you first catch the verb. Asmi I am, Aham, Pranotsi mi aham, I remain having saluted.
Then what is the alter of salute. Who do you salute? Respected alter. Govindam Prantam I remain saluting Govinda. Govinda is a name here of the guru, of Satguru. Whose name is Govinda.
Shankara’s guru name was Govinda. Govinda is also Lord Krishna. The one who is understood by words of the Shashtra. Govinda is one who is understood by revealing words. Go means cow, vinda meaning of word. The one is not separate from Parmananda. Free from pain and suffering. Here there are two more adjectives, one who is tam gobinda. I salute Govinda who is not more ignorant of his limitlessness. And who is Agnocharam. Gocharam is anything available for your senses like form, color, sound. I hear this, see this. Relate to them as subjects. What is limitless must be both subject and object. It cannot be just an object. If anything can be both subject and object silently it reads its neither subject nor object. It’s not available for objectification. How do you understand the guru?
Sarvasham Sarva Vedanta there are four Vedas at the end of the Vedas we have Upanishads or dialogs that reveal subject matter.
There are Upanishads for all of them, what is the Sidhanta? What is the outcome?
Sidhanta is the outcome or the conclusion. Finally the revealed outcome of all the words of Vedanta is your understanding that I am the whole.
That is the Swarupa of atman; unless you know yourself you cannot understand your guru. If your guru does not make you see yourself he is not a guru. The means of knowledge that we have is all meant for things that we can objectify. They leave you alone. You are the reader, the subject. Subject is not going to be objectified by the senses. The subject is to be understood because it can be misconstrued. That I am does not need knowledge.
Who am 1? The one who is asking the question. Definitely does not know. What answer will you give? To keeps the question going? The answer will never come unless the I get tired of your questions. I do not talk. What are you going to do?
Small s is searching for Capital S. Here there are no small s or big s’s, the s is the self, or the I. There is no second 1.
Human beings are confused by the human mind. Every other problem is shared by monkeys and us. There is a living organism problem. But if the monkey is given the human mind he will cease to be a monkey. As a monkey he is happy, as a human he becomes restless.
Human beings have evolved from monkeys, talk to the monkey ask him, if that is true. The monkey will laugh. The monkeys will convey to other monkeys, he has evolved from me, then I would like to be a monkey. They live there lives perfect. The human mind is a problem it makes you self conscious and makes you make judgments. In sleep your mind does not work.
Even some people say if the mind became empty you are enlightened. If you have an empty mind you have an empty mind, no need to imagine anything else. It is not an enlightened mind it is a lightened mind.
If thinking is a problem you are not going to solve it. When will I have a mind that is thoughtless? This is thoughtless thinking. Why not in Samadhi. No time, no place, no object, no subject. Mind is awake but no thoughts. Timeless. I was eternal for half an hour. You had no thoughts for half an hour.
Wrong thinking is the problem not thinking. If you have a headache you do remove the head. Mind is not the problem. How great it is. It is Shanika vriti, momentary.
Hand is the object of your thought when you move it. How would it be if the mind does not give up the object. You see a man and then a car, if the thought of the man has not gone and the car has come; the car will be on top of the man.
You see what’s happening in your head, you don’t see anything else.
All that you see is what is happening in your own mind. I don’t say there is no relevant object outside. That is why the mind can project things upon things. There is a certain anxiety, unconscious or Samskara, you see things that are not there. We try to reduce that subjectivity and make the mind objective. That is what yoga is about. Even when you are objective you are going to see things. You see me, you are not seeing me. You are seeing the body of the past not the present. This body has to reflect light. The traveling of the light takes a fraction to reach your eyes. You never see what is now. Only when you go to micro level you find that we are living in our own worlds, at a macro level the fraction is so small that you can’t perceive it. It is all just Vivahara.
In language we have to use tenses, if we analyze tenses we became tense. Rama cooks. Is present tense. When can I use cook in the present tense. Rama washes vessels he is still cooking. This is an arbitrary projection upon a tense upon an action.
In a restaurant here the table is always occupied by the same people for a long time. In India in Udipi restaurants tables keep moving, people keep moving.
By asking questions you are not going to be enlightened. The mind can help you by objectifying you. The thought is Shanika it is variable. You are present all the time. The self is Agocharam, that which is not available for your mind to objectify. The only thing that exists without the mind objectifying it is you, the self. Agocharam. But it is understood as it is. The confusion is resolved, as the Lakshya as the implied meaning. Like Satyam, Gyanam, Mukhtam, this is what you are. The whole thing is a method of revealing the self.
Sarva Vedanta Sidhanta Agocharam Visharam. Otherwise not available for objectification. Who is Govinda? My satguru, I am no more I am him. Like a salt doll enters into the ocean to measure the depth. It becomes the ocean itself. When a disciple goes to a teacher to find out how much he knows he realizes he is not any different from the teacher.
Viveka implies a lot of things. People go to the beach, in certain clothes; they do not go to their workplace in those clothes, because it is inappropriate. There are certain times that make certain things inappropriate. To be done or not that is Viveka. When we confront options, whether things are appropriate or inappropriate, Viveka needs to be used all the time.
Ultimate Viveka asks, what is atman what is one or satya how far is it true? What is atman Viveka. I am Viveka Chudamani. This is the crown jewel, it is discriminative inquiry leading to self knowledge and is attributed to Shankara.
The book has 500 verses we have chosen 100 verses. The topics are carefully chosen as the material is complete in itself. It often repeats. All the verses were collected together but have been written at different times.
Selected topic wise.
Viveka is inquiry, one inquiry is of a subject matter that is unknown or inadequately known. Once you make an inquiry that is Vichara. Viveka differentiates the nature of the inquiry about a subject matter that is not totally unknown. It is known but there is an erroneous conclusion. Then the inquiry is to understand what is what. When things are mixed up. Inquiry meant to clarify.
For example, this crystal appears red, if we take it as a red colored stone. It needs not Vichara but Viveka. This mistake is corrected when you come to know that the color of this object (crystal) is not of the crystal, but it belongs to something else. And once you have understood the object as a crystal, if your knowledge is crystal clear, let it appear in any form. Your knowledge of crystal is not altered. Knowledge must be clear, free from vagueness, complete then you have no problem. This inquiry which leads to the knowledge of crystal no matter what color it appears in, that is Viveka. It is a mistaken notion that it is a colored object, it is not an attribute of a crystal. The Swarupa or nature of the crystal being understood as one free from any color is Nirguna. Free from being any color in the spectrum.
The subject matter is yourself, when analyzing Swarupa. It helps you in understanding yourself. The self is not unknown. It is known and taken for granted. Can you put knowledge of self in your resume? Why should children go after self knowledge? Parents are practical and don’t understand how self knowledge is going to help any one. He blames her she blames him. What is self knowledge?
When you go to a psychoanalysist, he is not going to look at your face and advise you. He is going to get information from you. You are the only judge about yourself. No one else can tell you about yourself. You are the only means of knowing about your history. If the inner life is to be known about your history. How can there be a discussion of your self, in Viveka Chudamani or in its source book Vedanta.
You must be more than what you think yourself to be. It should be something that is not peculiar to you. It should be something common. How they work here they work elsewhere. They are common. Self is I, it is unknown to me. If it’s mistaken to be other than what it is known to be? One cannot afford to commit a mistake about oneself. What is insanity? It is a mistaken self identity. We are all sane, because we define sanity. If institutionalized people define sanity they would all be sane.
If I were you. Be careful of this sentence, I would be worst. I wouldn’t be a person, I would just melt away. The situation is not good at all, that you are sad is but proper, that you feel lonely it is ok. The therapist tells you that you are lonely. Nobody understands you because you are such a profound person. I am not criticizing the therapist; I would do that as well to begin with. These are normal emotions angry, sad and depressed, in a competitive society you have to be like this. You have to draw boundaries, don’t allow people to transgress boundaries, otherwise you became a doormat. There are workshops to help you to be successfully aggressive. Lots of people are aggressive but not successful. So these workshops are self esteem workshops. Are you going to put the self in a lake and make it nicer? What is the workshop? We don’t have respect for words? We are dealing with the precious self and we call it workshop.
I thought let me learn about workshops, and when I went to one, it was in a hotel room, with everyone sitting with a Coke and coffee in hand. Is that the respect that we have for the self. It reveals a certain way of thinking. To be successfully aggressive is normal.
So the subject matter of this book is the subject matter that is common to all. We have to unfold it. The self that is discussed here is unlike everything else-
There is no comparison possible. Incomparably comparable. It is like itself, like space is like space, sky is like sky. The self is like the self. There is no second self for comparison. I am the only self. You are the only self. There is no other self. I have a unique self subject to limitations.
The self is the only reality and everything else depends on that reality. Everything else does not omit anybody else. Out of sight out of mind like everything else. And so there is nothing else which is indicative of you. Everything that you confront, come to know, don’t know, everything is dependent entirely upon you.
When everything depends on you, you don’t depend on anyone else. Your being is totally independent of everything else, even though everything else depends on you.
You are free from everything, you are the whole.
You will find yourself whole then there is an investment involved a commitment it is futuristic. Wherever there is a rosy future for you there is an emotional and time investment. The book says you are the whole. You take yourself to be other than the whole. A mistake like this can never prove to be a blessing for you. Sometimes mistakes prove to be a blessing. What you didn’t want you got. Here you are committing a mistake against the fact if this fact. If you are the whole, the mistake against that reality will make you a loser. Whole means limitless. If you commit a mistake against the limitless, the mistake will be uniform. I am subject to limitations. A mistake against the limitless is a capital mistake and therefore, the subject matter. Our own experiences give us possibilities simple moments of happiness in spite of, against all the notions you see yourself as a happy person. This is experience. That’s why you want that experience again. This happy person is an advantageous person. Suddenly this happy person arrived. Not happiness arrived. Happiness in not an object. You only saw yourself as happy not related to me.
In a subject object situation you come across now and then. We make a thesis here perhaps you don’t need to fulfill all your wants and desires coming from your limitations in order to be happy.
The limitations one thought that are intrinsic to myself are not there perhaps, e.g. like the color of the crystal. These limitations belong to something else. They do not belong to me. In spite of all the limitations, I think I have. In the happy person I see a wholeness and completeness. The problem here is that person is the person. All the limitations that you throw upon yourself are part of your not recognizing that person. Because what is intrinsic to a properties in a person as long as fire is there its going to be hot, ashes, smoke need not be there. But the heat will be there. If I look at my limitations they are all variable.
Your age is variable; the place where you are now is variable. The place is variable I am a Californian but I am here. Time is variable. Your physical body is also variable it’s never the same it keeps on changing. Your mind don’t ask. Is also variable. Everything is variable. Therefore can you make a judgment about oneself? There is enough reason for you to explore what this book says.
That inquiry is Viveka there are many types of Viveka. Wherever there is confusion there is a Viveka, right or wrong dharma, appropriate or inappropriate, vrita conduct,
This is a prayer verse. It is a hard verse. Asmi, Pranotoasmi this is a verb. In understanding a verse you first catch the verb. Asmi I am, Aham, Pranotsi mi aham, I remain having saluted.
Then what is the alter of salute. Who do you salute? Respected alter. Govindam Prantam I remain saluting Govinda. Govinda is a name here of the guru, of Satguru. Whose name is Govinda.
Shankara’s guru name was Govinda. Govinda is also Lord Krishna. The one who is understood by words of the Shashtra. Govinda is one who is understood by revealing words. Go means cow, vinda meaning of word. The one is not separate from Parmananda. Free from pain and suffering. Here there are two more adjectives, one who is tam gobinda. I salute Govinda who is not more ignorant of his limitlessness. And who is Agnocharam. Gocharam is anything available for your senses like form, color, sound. I hear this, see this. Relate to them as subjects. What is limitless must be both subject and object. It cannot be just an object. If anything can be both subject and object silently it reads its neither subject nor object. It’s not available for objectification. How do you understand the guru?
Sarvasham Sarva Vedanta there are four Vedas at the end of the Vedas we have Upanishads or dialogs that reveal subject matter.
There are Upanishads for all of them, what is the Sidhanta? What is the outcome?
Sidhanta is the outcome or the conclusion. Finally the revealed outcome of all the words of Vedanta is your understanding that I am the whole.
That is the Swarupa of atman; unless you know yourself you cannot understand your guru. If your guru does not make you see yourself he is not a guru. The means of knowledge that we have is all meant for things that we can objectify. They leave you alone. You are the reader, the subject. Subject is not going to be objectified by the senses. The subject is to be understood because it can be misconstrued. That I am does not need knowledge.
Who am 1? The one who is asking the question. Definitely does not know. What answer will you give? To keeps the question going? The answer will never come unless the I get tired of your questions. I do not talk. What are you going to do?
Small s is searching for Capital S. Here there are no small s or big s’s, the s is the self, or the I. There is no second 1.
Human beings are confused by the human mind. Every other problem is shared by monkeys and us. There is a living organism problem. But if the monkey is given the human mind he will cease to be a monkey. As a monkey he is happy, as a human he becomes restless.
Human beings have evolved from monkeys, talk to the monkey ask him, if that is true. The monkey will laugh. The monkeys will convey to other monkeys, he has evolved from me, then I would like to be a monkey. They live there lives perfect. The human mind is a problem it makes you self conscious and makes you make judgments. In sleep your mind does not work.
Even some people say if the mind became empty you are enlightened. If you have an empty mind you have an empty mind, no need to imagine anything else. It is not an enlightened mind it is a lightened mind.
If thinking is a problem you are not going to solve it. When will I have a mind that is thoughtless? This is thoughtless thinking. Why not in Samadhi. No time, no place, no object, no subject. Mind is awake but no thoughts. Timeless. I was eternal for half an hour. You had no thoughts for half an hour.
Wrong thinking is the problem not thinking. If you have a headache you do remove the head. Mind is not the problem. How great it is. It is Shanika vriti, momentary.
Hand is the object of your thought when you move it. How would it be if the mind does not give up the object. You see a man and then a car, if the thought of the man has not gone and the car has come; the car will be on top of the man.
You see what’s happening in your head, you don’t see anything else.
All that you see is what is happening in your own mind. I don’t say there is no relevant object outside. That is why the mind can project things upon things. There is a certain anxiety, unconscious or Samskara, you see things that are not there. We try to reduce that subjectivity and make the mind objective. That is what yoga is about. Even when you are objective you are going to see things. You see me, you are not seeing me. You are seeing the body of the past not the present. This body has to reflect light. The traveling of the light takes a fraction to reach your eyes. You never see what is now. Only when you go to micro level you find that we are living in our own worlds, at a macro level the fraction is so small that you can’t perceive it. It is all just Vivahara.
In language we have to use tenses, if we analyze tenses we became tense. Rama cooks. Is present tense. When can I use cook in the present tense. Rama washes vessels he is still cooking. This is an arbitrary projection upon a tense upon an action.
In a restaurant here the table is always occupied by the same people for a long time. In India in Udipi restaurants tables keep moving, people keep moving.
By asking questions you are not going to be enlightened. The mind can help you by objectifying you. The thought is Shanika it is variable. You are present all the time. The self is Agocharam, that which is not available for your mind to objectify. The only thing that exists without the mind objectifying it is you, the self. Agocharam. But it is understood as it is. The confusion is resolved, as the Lakshya as the implied meaning. Like Satyam, Gyanam, Mukhtam, this is what you are. The whole thing is a method of revealing the self.
Sarva Vedanta Sidhanta Agocharam Visharam. Otherwise not available for objectification. Who is Govinda? My satguru, I am no more I am him. Like a salt doll enters into the ocean to measure the depth. It becomes the ocean itself. When a disciple goes to a teacher to find out how much he knows he realizes he is not any different from the teacher.
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