Vivekacūḍāmaṇi
The Vivekachudamani is a philosophical treatise within the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism, traditionally attributed to the Vedāntic philosopher Adi Shankara, though this attribution has been questioned and mostly rejected by scholarship. It is in the form of a poem in the Shardula Vikridita metre.
The text discusses key concepts such as the viveka between real and unreal, Prakriti and Atman, the oneness of Atman and Brahman, and self-knowledge as the central task of spiritual life and for Moksha. It expounds the Advaita Vedanta philosophy in the form of a self-teaching manual, with many verses in the form of a dialogue between a student and a spiritual teacher.
Author
The authorship of the Vivekachudamani has been questioned. According to Reza Shah-Kazemi the authorship of Shankara is doubtful, though it is "so closely interwoven into the spiritual heritage of Shankara that any analysis of his perspective which fails to consider would be incomplete". According to Michael Comans, a scholar of Advaita Vedanta, though the Hindu tradition popularly believes that Adi Shankara authored the Vivekachudamani, this is "most probably erroneous". Comans gives the following reasons for his doubts: the highly poetic style of the Vivekachudamani is not found in other genuine works of Adi Shankara; there is a lack of extensive commentaries on the Vivekachudamani which is unusual given the extensive commentaries on his other works; and unlike Shankara's other genuine works which give minimal importance to samadhi practices, the Vivekachudamani gives special importance to it. Though the Vivekachudamani is a popular manual on Vedanta, it is probably the work of a later Shankara, and not Adi Shankara, states Comans. Yet another theory, states Berger, is that "rather than simply having been written or not written by Shankara, the Crown Jewel of Discrimination may be a corporately authored work that went through revisions".According to Natalia Isayeva, a scholar of Advaita Vedanta, it is "far less probable" that Adi Shankara authored the Vivekachudamani. Sengaku Mayeda, another scholar of Indian Philosophy and Advaita Vedanta, states that though widely accepted as Shankara's work, the Vivekachudamani is likely not his work.
Paul Hacker, an Indologist and scholar of Advaita, set out a methodology for ascertaining authorship of Advaita texts and he concluded that though the Vivekachudmani is unusual in parts, it was likely authored by Adi Shankara. Hacker stated that the definitions of the key concepts, premises and ideas found in the Vivekachudmani match with those in Shankara's established authentic works. Daniel H. H. Ingalls Sr., another influential Indologist, rejected Hacker's conclusion by accepting Hacker's methodology and presenting evidence from its manuscripts that some of the ideas in the text do not fully agree with those of Adi Shankara.
According to John Grimes, a professor of Hinduism and Buddhism known for his translation of the Vivekachudamani, "modern scholars tend to reject that Adi Shankara composed Vivekachudamani, while traditionalists tend to accept it", and there is an unending "arguments and counter-arguments" about its authorship. Grimes states that his work strengthens the case that "there is still a likelihood that Śaṅkara is the author of the," noting that "a strong case can be made that the is a genuine work of Shankara's and that it differs in certain respects from his other works in that it addresses itself to a different audience and has a different emphasis and purpose."
Irrespective of the attribution, the Vivekachudmani is a significant work of Advaita. According to Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a Vedanta teacher, "I do not think we lose anything even if the authorship is attributed to any other Sankaracharya of one of the various Sankara-mathas."
Manuscripts
Many historic manuscripts of the Vivekachudamani have been found in different monasteries of Advaita Vedanta. These have minor variations, and a critical edition of these has not been published yet. The earliest original Sanskrit manuscript of the Vivekachudamani was published from Srirangam by T.K. Balasubramania Iyer in 1910. This edition has attracted much of 20th- and 21st-century scholarship, and has been republished in 1983 after some revision and re-arrangement to reflect studies on it since 1910. Other editions have been the basis of a few Indian translations. The five most referred to manuscripts in Advaita scholarship have been published by Samata, Advaita Ashrama, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Chinmayananda Ashrama.Contents
The Vivekachudamani consists of 580 verses in Sanskrit. These cover a range of spiritual topics and their answers according to the Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism.| Section | Verses | Topics |
| 1 | 1–31 | Man's life and quest, spirituality, liberation: basic aspects |
| 2 | 32–71 | The need for a teacher, characteristics of a good teacher, characteristics of a good student |
| 3 | 72–110 | The physical, the body: discriminating the three essences |
| 4 | 111–135 | Nature and effects: five sheaths, three gunas |
| 5 | 136–146 | The goal of spirituality, the nature of bondage, the nature of confusion, the nature of sorrow |
| 6 | 147–153 | Atma and Anatma: discrimination, self-knowledge and bliss |
| 7 | 154–225 | The path to self-knowledge |
| 7 | 154–164 | Annamaya kosha and its negation |
| 7 | 165–166 | Pranamaya kosha and its negation |
| 7 | 167–183 | Manomaya kosha and its negation |
| 7 | 184–188 | Vijnanamaya kosha and its negation |
| 7 | 189–206 | The free soul, what is freedom and liberation, why self-knowledge is necessary |
| 7 | 207–210 | Anandamaya kosha and its negation |
| 7 | 211–225 | Atman, what it is not? what is it? |
| 8 | 226–240 | The absolute Brahman, the atman, the oneness, and the Vedic precepts |
| 9 | 240–249 | That thou art: you are it! |
| 10 | 250–266 | Meditation, its purpose, the method, questions to ponder and reflect on |
| 11 | 267–338 | The method |
| 11 | 267–276 | Understand and end vasanas |
| 11 | 277–292 | Understand and end svadhyasa |
| 11 | 293–309 | Understand and end ahankara |
| 11 | 310–319 | Renounce egocentric work, craving and sense objects |
| 11 | 320–329 | Be true to supreme self, be vigilant against delusion |
| 11 | 330–338 | Cherish oneness, there is no duality, no plurality; dwell in the real, not the unreal |
| 12 | 339–383 | Spiritual growth and nirvikalpa samadhi, the entire universe is you, you are the self of all |
| 13 | 384–406 | Continuous attention to one's true nature |
| 14 | 407–425 | Atma-vichara: self-inquiry |
| 15 | 426–445 | Signs of a realized seer: jivanmukta |
| 16 | 446–471 | The saint without plurality |
| 17 | 472–520 | The disciple of knowledge and the experience of self-hood |
| 18 | 521–575 | Final words of advice from the teacher |
| 576–580 | Epilogue: the liberated disciple and the innermost essence of Vedanta |
The text begins with salutations to Govinda, which can be interpreted either as referring to God or to his guru Sri Govinda Bhagavatpada. It then expounds the significance of Self Realisation, ways to reach it, and the characteristics of a Guru. It criticises attachment to the body and goes to explain the various bodies, sheaths, qualities, senses, and energies which constitute the Anatman. It teaches the disciple the ways to attain Self-realisation, methods of meditation and introspection of the Atman. The Vivekachudamani describes the characteristics of an enlightened human being and a person of steady wisdom on the lines of Bhagavad Gita.
Significance
The Vivekachudmani has been celebrated as a lucid introductory treatise to Advaita Vedanta. It is, states Berger, not a "philosophical or polemical" text. It is primarily a pedagogical treatise, as an aid to an Advaitin's spiritual journey to liberation rather than "philosophy for the sake of philosophy". It is one of the texts of "spiritual sustenance" in the Advaita tradition.The Vivekachudmani is one of several historic teaching manuals in the Advaita tradition, one of its most popular. Other texts that illustrate Advaita ideas in a manner broadly similar to the Vivekachudmani but are neither as comprehensive nor same, include Ekasloki, Svatmaprakasika, Manisapancaka, Nirvanamanjari, Tattvopadesa, Prasnottararatnamalika, Svatmanirupana, Prabodhasudhakara and Jivanmuktanandalahari. These texts are not attributed to Adi Shankara. Upadesasahasri, another Advaita teaching manual, is attributed to Adi Shankara.
Commentaries and translations
There are two Sanskrit commentaries on this work. Sri Sacchidananda Shivabhinava Nrusimha Bharati, the pontiff of Sringeri, wrote a commentary titled Vivekodaya on the first seven verses of this work. His disciple, Sri Chandrasekhara Bharathi, has written a Vyakhya or commentary on the first 515 verses of this work.This work has been translated into various languages, often accompanied by a commentary in the same language. English translations and commentaries include those by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Swami Madhavananda, Swami Turiyananda, "Dravidācārya" Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇan Svāmīji and Swami Chinmayananda. Tamil translations and commentaries include those by Ramana Maharshi. Swami Jyotihswarupananda has translated the Vivekachudamani into Marathi.
A recent scholarly translation of the text was published in 2004 by John Grimes – a professor of Hinduism and Buddhism. His translation has been reviewed by Douglas Berger, who states, "the translation itself is a testament to Grimes' surpassing Sanskrit skills and thorough knowledge of Vedantic textual exegesis. The unusually lucid presentation of the Sanskrit slokas is rendered with exactness and eloquent clarity in the English. The accompanying Upanisadic cross-referencing and Sanskrit-English lexicon of key terms will prove themselves enormously helpful to lay readers, students, and scholars."
Hundreds of commentaries in several languages are available on internet in the form of blog articles, videos etc.
Famous verses
- ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्येत्येवंरूपो विनिश्चयः । सोऽयं नित्यानित्यवस्तुविवेकः समुदाहृतः ॥२०॥
- अर्थस्य निश्चयो दृष्टो विचारेण हितोक्तितः