VIVEKA-CHUDAMANI

By: Shankaracharya
Commentary: Swami Ranganathananda
Edited: Swami Shuddhidananda
Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

Part 5

THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SELF (Cont.)

“Living in a retired place serves to control the sense organs, control of the
senses helps to control the mind, through control of the mind egoism is
destroyed; and this again gives the yogi an unbroken realization of the Bliss of
Brahman. Therefore, the man of reflection should always strive only to control
the mind. Restrain speech in the manas, and restrain manas in the buddhi; this
again restrain in the witness of buddhi, and merging that also in the Infinite
Absolute Self, attain to Supreme Peace.”

“Know O wise man, dispassion and spiritual awareness to be like the two wings
of a bird in the case of an aspirant. Unless both are there, none can, with the

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help of either one reach the creeper of liberation that grows, as it were, on the
top of an edifice.

“The wise one realizes in his heart, in ‘Samadhi’, the infinite Brahman, which is
an effable something, of the nature of Eternal Knowledge and Absolute Bliss,
which has no exemplar, which transcends all limitations, is ever free and without
activity, which is like the limitless sky, indivisible and absolute. The wise one
realizes in his heart, in ‘Samadhi’, the infinite Brahman, which is devoid of the
touch of cause and effect, which is the Reality behind all imagination, which is
homogeneous, matchless, beyond the reach of logical proofs, (but) proved by
the experience of the wise as recorded in the Vedantic spiritual tradition, and
ever familiar to man as the basis of his Self-awareness. The wise one realizes in
his heart, in ‘Samadhi’, the infinite Brahman, which is undecaying and immortal,
the Reality which is the negation of all negations, which resembles the ocean
when the waves have subsided, which is without a name, in which have
subsided all the modifications of the ‘gunas’ (nature’s modes), and which is
eternal, pacified and One.”

“He whose illumination is steady, who has constant bliss, and who has almost
forgotten the phenomenal universe, is accepted as a man liberated in this very
life. He who, even his mind merged in Brahman, is nevertheless quite alert, but
free at the same time from the characteristics of the waking state, and whose
realization is free from desires, is accepted as a man liberated in this very life.”

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“Thou, too, discriminate this Supreme Truth, the real nature of the Self, which is
Bliss undiluted, and shaking off thy delusion created by the open mind, be free
and illumined, and attain the consummation of thy life.”

“The verdict of all discussions on the Vedanta is that the ‘jiva’ and the whole
universe are nothing but Brahman, and that liberation means abiding in
Brahman, the indivisible Entity. While the ‘Shrutis’ themselves are the authority
(for the statement) that ‘Brahman is One without a second’.”

“The universe is an unbroken series of perceptions of Brahman; hence it is in all

aspects nothing but Brahman. See this with the eye of illumination and a serene
mind, under all circumstances. Is one who has eyes ever found to see all around
anything else but forms? Similarly, what is there except Brahman to engage the
intellect of a man of realization?”

“Though without riches, yet ever content; though hopeless, yet very powerful;
though not enjoying the sense objects, yet eternally satisfied; though without
exemplar, yet looking upon with an eye of equality.”

There are two types of greatness seen in people. One is the worldly greatness,
and the other is the true spiritual greatness. When we go to a person who is
great in the worldly sense, we become small. Worldly greatness makes others
small and humble. But in the presence of a person who is spiritually great, even
small and ordinary people feel elevated and raised.

If we are made to sit on a chair of authority and power, people will obviously
respect us, perhaps out of fear. But a spiritually great man doesn’t need a chair
of authority. The very character of such people, full of universal love and same-
sightedness, commands love and respect from all equally. There is not a tinge of

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fear in people’s response and approach to them. People go to them out of love
and respect and not out of fear. Every man of spiritual realization possesses this
wonderful quality.

To make others feel great in our presence is the way to our own greatness.
This is the unique quality of spiritual greatness.

“As milk poured into milk, oil into oil, and water into water, becomes united and
one with it, so the sage who has realized the Atman becomes One in the Atman.”

“The affirmation (of the theist) that God is, and the negation (of the atheist) that
God is not, both these are nothing but pulsations of buddhi; it never touches the
Eternal Reality (behind the buddhi).”

India, in her Upanishads and the great philosopher saints of later times, had
developed the most scientific idea of God – God as our Self, the eternal witness
of everything. The extra-cosmic God can be dethroned, but God as our inner Self
remains forever. He is the witness of even the statements negating Him.

Because of this knowledge, India became intensely tolerant in the field of

religion. Every view of God had a place in Indian society, even the crudest ones.
Even atheists and agnostics have been respectfully placed here. India knew God
is One. People conceived Him variously, but conception of God is not God. He is
the witness of all conceptions as our Self. We have to educate our people
everywhere in this great Truth.

“For those who are afflicted, in the way of the world, by the burning pain due to
the (scorching) sunshine of threefold misery, and who through delusion wander
about in a desert in search of water – for them here is the triumphant message of
Shankara pointing out, within easy reach, the soothing ocean of nectar,
Brahman, the One without a second – to lead them to liberation.”

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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