Prefatory 0
In plain words
Om. Homage to the supreme Brahman. All beings seek lasting happiness. We wish to remove suffering as we remove an illness and return to our natural ease. Our deepest love is for ourselves, and in dreamless sleep we experience happiness without possessing any object. Happiness is therefore our own reality. Ignorance of that reality sends us after pleasures here and hereafter, yet these never provide happiness entirely free of sorrow. Shankara reveals the direct way. His great commentaries unfold Vedanta, and Vivekachudamani makes their inward meaning accessible to earnest seekers who cannot study them at length. It begins with the rarity of human birth and the need to seek liberation through knowledge and enquiry. A qualified teacher, a prepared disciple and the disciple’s own effort are essential. Words understood only verbally do not fulfil the purpose. Hearing the teaching distinguishes the Self from the three bodies. Reflective enquiry asks inwardly, “Who am I?” and discerns the Self from the five sheaths, as the pith is separated from a blade of munja grass. The great sentence “That thou art” reveals the identity of this Self with Brahman when the limiting adjuncts of both terms are understood and relinquished. Old habits of ego and outward attention can still obstruct abiding. The work therefore explains sustained attention to the Self: devotion, yoga, meditation and nididhyasana. Like steady churning or a continuous stream of oil, this practice matures into natural, effortless absorption. The one reality shines without interruption, and the knots of ignorance, doubt and karma are undone. The dialogue follows this teaching through the disciple’s recognition, the freedom and conduct of the liberated sage, and final release without return. A Tamil verse rendering by Bhikshu Sastrigal already exists. Bhagavan closes with the image of one sweet in different colours and shapes: the discerning enjoy its single taste through the form they prefer. May the root ignorance of a separate I cease. May we delight unceasingly in the divine Self, shining in the heart as I-I beyond day and night.
Word for word
Om. Salutation to the supreme Brahman. All living beings in the world wish always to be happy without suffering, just as one wishes to remove illness and the like, which are not one’s natural condition, and remain well as usual. Everyone has the greatest love for oneself; love does not arise apart from happiness; and in sleep there is the experience of happiness without any object. Therefore happiness is oneself. Yet through ignorance of oneself, beings wander in boundless samsara. Leaving the way that gives happiness, they engage in obtaining enjoyments here and hereafter as though this were its way, but do not obtain happiness free of suffering. To show the direct way, the auspicious Lord himself assumed Shankara’s form, composed commentaries on Vedanta’s three foundational sources, which celebrate this happiness, and showed the path and its practice. Those works could not serve seekers intensely longing for happiness and liberation who lacked the ability to study them. He therefore revealed their inner meaning through Vivekachudamani, extensively explaining what seekers need and showing the direct path. It teaches that human birth is rare; one should therefore strive for liberation’s bliss, one’s own nature; liberation is through knowledge alone, and knowledge through enquiry alone. One must approach a Guru. It describes the qualities of Guru and disciple and service to the Guru, then stresses one’s own effort: merely verbal knowledge does not give happiness. Enquiry beginning with hearing is the means to liberation. Hearing establishes that the three bodies are non-Self and unreal; the Self called I is distinct from them; bondage is taking the non-Self as Self, arising through ignorance and destroyed by knowledge. Reflection is subtle inward enquiry, “Who am I?” Rejecting as not-I the five sheaths comprising the three bodies, it discerns the one distinct Self—the meaning of thou, present as I in the heart—as one separates the pith within munja grass. The adjunct to That, the world of name and form, is removed by knowing it as Brahman alone. The meaning of That and the great sentence “That thou art” reveal the identity of Self and supreme reality; this I is to abide as Brahman. Even so, old dispositions rise strongly and obstruct. The text explains the three dispositions, their root in ego, the outward disposition toward difference that increases it, and the projecting and veiling powers responsible. Until these cease, the mind is established in the heart and, continuously without heedlessness, raises the homogeneous movement of the true Self expressed as “I am Brahman” and “Brahman alone am I.” This sustained attention to the Self is nididhyasana, also called devotion, yoga and meditation. Setting the churning-stick of mind in the heart, as fire and butter are brought forth from fire-sticks and curds, one practises Brahman-attention uninterruptedly like a stream of oil, and through the strength of this churning natural undifferentiated absorption manifests. Immediate, unobstructed experiential knowledge of Brahman is accomplished, shining effortlessly as one, inwardly and outwardly, everywhere and always. The heart-knot of ignorance and dispositions, doubts and karmas are destroyed; liberation as undivided bliss is accomplished. The text thus explains absorption with its discipline and the absence of even the slightest differentiation in it. Attaining this is life’s purpose. It describes the liberated person who has attained it, rather than [merely] indirect knowledge; freedom from the three karmas; the disciple’s own experience; the liberated one’s spontaneous conduct; bodiless liberation and no return. These two forms of liberation and many related matters are taught in a dialogue between Guru and disciple. Brahmasri Bhikshu Sastrigal has already translated this into Tamil poems. Of a single sweet made in many colours and shapes, do not discerning people choose what pleases them, eat without considering merits and faults, and delight in the taste of that same sweet? Invocation: So that the root ignorance called I may cease, may [we] continually rejoice with inward delight in the state of the divine Self, which shines within as I-I, without night or day.