Verses 101-150

INVOCATION

Om May no harm be done Here, May the vessels of the great Seers continue in Salvation, May these movements be in accord with Divine Will, May this desire be motivated by Love, May what is not beneficent wither to obscurity.
I prostrate.

VIVEKA-CUDAMANI OR

CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM

OF SRI SAMKARACARYA

Translation by

Mohoni M. Chatterji, F.T.S.

second edition 1947 (with updates from later editions added)

(101) This body having attained the condition of the actor manifests itself. In it shines the absolute self (seventh principle) which has as its vehicle intellect (higher fifth principle) and which is unaffected by any Karma as if an independent witness. Because it (seventh principle) is free from all union, it is unaffected by the action of any upadhi.

(102) This linga sarira performs all actions as the instrument of atman just as the chisel and other tools (perform the actions) of the carpenter; for this reason the atman is free from all union.

(103) The properties of blindness, weakness and adaptability exist on account of the good or bad condition of the eye; similarly deafness, dumbness and so on are properties of the ear and are not to be considered as belonging to the self.

(104) In-breathing, out-breathing, yawning, sneezing and so forth are actions of praSa and the rest, say the wise men; the property of vitality is manifested in hunger and thirst.

(105) The internal organ is in communication with the path of the eye and the rest, and by reason of the specialising (of the whole) the ego 1 (ahamkara) is manifested.

1 The corporeal eye by itself is incapable of seeing, otherwise it would not cease to see at the death of the body. In reality the eye sees by reason of its connection with the self through the egotism (ahamkara) by the concept or object which may be described as “I am the seer”. That this object is different from the egotism itself is clear from the fact that there exist other objects of a similar nature strung together or connected by the egotism such as “I am the hearer,” etc.; here it is plain that the above-mentioned concepts are none of them the egotism itself, for the disappearance of the concept “I am the seer” does not involve the disappearance of the egotism which manifests through other similar concepts.

(106) This ego which is the subject of enjoyment and experience is to be known as ahamkara. It attains three conditions by association with the qualities,2 sattva, and the rest.

2 The qualities are sattva or pleasure and goodness, rajas pain and passional activity, tamas indifference or dullness. In association with these qualities, forming the three classes into which objects are divided the egotism attains its three conditions. The excess of sattva produces super-human conditions, excess of rajas human and excess of tamas sub-human existence.

(107) By the agreeableness of objects it becomes happy and by the contrary unhappy; happiness and unhappiness are its properties and not of atman which is the eternal bliss.

(108) Objects become dear not in themselves but by reason of their usefulness to the self because the self is the most beloved of all.

(109) Therefore the atman is the eternal bliss, for it there is no pain. The bliss of the atman, dissociated from all objects which is experienced in dreamless slumber, is during waking perceived by direct cognition, 1 by instruction and by inference.

1 Which practical psychology or occultism gives.

(110) The supreme maya out of which all this universe is born, which is Paramesasakti (the power of the supreme Lord) called avyakta (unmanifested) and which is the beginningless avidya (ignorance) having the three gunas (qualities), is to be inferred through its effects by (our) intelligence.

(111) This maya is neither noumenal nor phenomenal nor is it essentially both; it is neither differentiated nor is it undifferentiated nor is it essentially both; it is neither particled nor is it unparticled nor is it essentially both; it is of the most wonderful and indescribable form.

(112) Its effects can be destroyed by the realization of the non-dual Brahman, as the illusion of the serpent in the rope is destroyed by the realization of the rope. The qualities of it are called rajas, tamas, and sattva and these are known by their effects.

(113) The power of rajas is extension (viksepa), which is the essence of action and from which the pre-existing tendencies to action were produced, and the modifications of the mind known, as attachment and other qualities productive of sorrow are always produced by it.

(114) Lust and anger, greed, arrogance, malice, aversion, personality, jealousy and envy are the terrible properties of rajas; therefore by this quality is produced inclination to action, for this reason rajas is the cause of bondage.

(115) The power of tamas is called is called avriti (enveloping) by the force of which one thing appears as another; it is this force which is the ultimate cause of the conditioned existence of the ego and the exciting cause for the operation of the force of extension (viksepa).

(116) Even though intelligent, learned, skilful, extremely keen-sighted in self-examination and properly instructed in various ways, one cannot exercise discrimination, if enveloped by tamas; but, on account of ignorance, one considers as real that which arises out of error, and depends upon the properties of objects produced by error. Alas! for him! great is the enveloping power of tamas and irrepressible!

(117) Absence of right perception, contradictory thinking, thinking of possibilities, taking unsubstantial things for substance, belonging to rajas. One associated with rajas is perpetually carried away by its expansive power.

(118) Ignorance, laziness, dullness, sleep, delusion, folly and others are the qualities of tamas. One possessed by these perceives nothing correctly but remains as if asleep or like a post.

(119) Pure sattva, even though mixed with these two, in the same way as one kind of water mixes with another,1 becomes the means of salvation; (for) the reflection of the absolute self (supreme spirit), received by sattva, sunlike manifests the universe of objects.

1 i.e., indistinguishably.

(120) The properties of mixed sattva, are self-respect, self-regulation, self-control and the rest, reverence, regard, desire for liberation, godlike attributes and abstinence from evil.

(121) The properties of pure sattva are purity, perception of the atman within us, supreme tranquillity, a sense of contentment, cheerfulness, concentration of mind upon the self by which a taste of eternal bliss is obtained.

(122) The unmanifested (avyaktam) indicated by these three qualities is the (cause of) karana sarira (causal body) of the ego. The state of its manifestation is dreamless slumber, in which the functions of all organs and of the buddhi are latent.

(123) Dreamless slumber is that state in which all consciousness is at rest, and intellect (buddhi) remains in a latent state; it is known as a state in which there is no knowledge.

(124) The body, organs, vitality, mind (manas), ego and the rest, all differentiations, the objects of sense, enjoyment and the rest, akasa and other elements composing this endless universe, including the avyaktam (unmanifested) are the not-spirit.

(125) Maya, all the functions of maya-from mahat 1 to the body-know to be asat (prakriti or the unreal objectivity) like the mirage of the desert by reason of their being the non-ego.

1 Buddhi, the first manifestation of prakriti.

(126) Now I shall tell you the essential form (svarupa) of the supreme spirit (Paramatman), knowing which, man freed from bondage attains isolation (reality of being).

(127) An eternal somewhat, upon which the conviction relating to the ego rests, exists as itself, being different from the five sheaths and the witness of the three conditions.

(128) Who during waking, dreaming, and dreamless slumber knows the mind and its functions which are goodness and its absence-this is the ego.

(129) Who by himself sees (cognizes) everything, who is not seen by anyone, who vitalizes buddhi and the others and who is not vitalized by them-this is the atman.

(130) The atman is that by which this universe is pervaded, which nothing pervades, which causes all things to shine, but which all things cannot make to shine.

(131) By reason of its proximity alone the body, the organs, manas and buddhi, apply themselves to their proper objects as if applied (by some one else).

(132) By it having the form of eternal consciousness all objects from ahamkara to the body and pleasure and the rest are perceived as a jar (is perceived by us).

(133) This purusa, the essential atman 1 is primeval, perpetual, unconditioned, absolute happiness, eternally having the same form and being knowledge itself-impelled by whom speech (vak) and the vital airs move,

1 Because it is manifested as itself in the Unmanifested universe.

(134) This unmanifested spiritual consciousness begins to manifest like the dawn in the pure heart, and shining like the midday sun in the “cave of wisdom” 1 illuminating whole universe.

1 i.e., the agnicakra, See “Places of Pilgrimage in India” quoted on pp. 78-91 of the Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row (Second Edition).

(135) The knower of the modifications (operations) 2 of the manas and ahamkrti, of the actions performed by the body, organs and vitality present in them, as the fire is present in the iron, (heated by fire) does not act nor modify (in the same sense as the above), nor follow (their actions).

2 viz., vitality, the organs, etc.

(136) That eternal is not born, does not die, or grow or decay or modify, is not itself dissolved by the dissolution of this body, as space (is not dissolved) by the dissolution of the jar.

(137) The supreme spirit (Paramatman), different from prakriti and its modifications, having for its essential characteristic pure consciousness is unparticled, manifests this infinity of reality and unreality-the underlying essence of the notion “I”, “I”-manifests 1 itself in the conditions, waking and the rest, as the witness (or subject) of buddhi.

1 The original word is vilasati, plays. I am compelled to sacrifice in the translation, the suggestion in the original as to the absence of want and therefore of a motive for action in the absolute ego.

(138) disciple, with mind under control, directly perceive this, the atman in thyself as-“this I am”-through the tranquility of buddhi cross the shoreless sea of changeful existence, whose billows are birth and death, and accomplish thy end, resting firmly in the form of Brahman.

(139) Bondage is the conviction 1 of the “I” as being related to the non-ego; from the ignorance (or error)2 arising out of this springs forth the same cause of the birth, death, and suffering of the individual so conditioned. And it is from this (error) alone that (he) nourishes, anoints and preserves this body mistaking the unreal for the real and gets enveloped in objects of sense in the same way as a cocoon maker (larva) gets enveloped in its own secretion.

1 The original word is mati which is a synonym for buddhi. Bondage therefore is that condition or modification of buddhi in which it takes the form of the error mentioned in the text. Starting from this initial modification buddhi secretes, larva-like, the world of objects which it reflects upon the atman and produces its bondage or illusive conditions. Atman is eternally pure and unconditioned, but through its erroneous identification with buddhi, secreting the illusion of objects, it becomes bound, that is to say, the modifications of buddhi become ascribable to it.
2 The words avidya and ajnana are usually rendered “ignorance”; but it is necessary to state that in this connection the word ‘ignorance’ has a meaning slightly different from the usual one. It does not mean negation of knowledge but is a positive concept as we said before. Perhaps error is a better rendering. The negative particle a in these words does not imply the negation of the term it qualifies but its antithesis. Thus akarma = evil act, akhyati = ill-fame, etc.

(140) friend listen! The notion of ego in one deluded by tamas becomes strengthened in this (asat). From such absence of discrimination springs forth the notion 1 of rope in the snake. From this a mass of great suffering befalls the entertainer of such a notion. Therefore the acceptance of asat as the “I” is bondage.2

1 The original word is dhisana. It signifies that subconscious activity which goes on during the vivid cognition of any particular state of consciousness and becomes realized in the succeeding state. Thus the dhisana of waking consciousness becomes real and objective in dream-life. See Shankara’s commentary on the opening stanza of Gaudapada’s karika on the Mandukya Upanisad.
2 In other words bondage is the condition in which the notion of I has any content which is objective, in the largest sense of the word. But as there are grades of liberation this definition of bondage is to be taken as the absolute limit.

(141) The enveloping power of tamas completely enshrouds this atman, having infinite powers (vibhava), manifested by the indivisible, eternal, non-dual power of knowledge, as rahu (the shadow of the moon) enshrouds the sun’s orb.

(142) On the disappearance from the atman of an individual’s knowledge of identity with it-a knowledge which possesses supremely stainless radiance,-the individual in delusion imagines this body which is not-self to be the Self. Then the great power of rajas called vikshhepa (extension) gives great pain to this individual by the ropes of bondage (such as) lust, anger, etc.

(143) This man of perverted intellect, being deprived of the real knowledge of the atman through being devoured by the shark of great delusion, is subject to conditioned existence on account of this expansive energy (vikshhepa). Hence he, contemptible in conduct, rises and falls in this ocean of conditioned existence, full of poison.

(144) As clouds produced (i.e. rendered visible) by the rays of the sun manifest themselves by hiding the sun, so egotism arising through connection with the atman manifests itself by hiding the real character of the atman (or ego).

(145) As on the unpropitious day when thick clouds devour the sun, sharp, cold blasts torment the clouds, so when the ego is without intermission enveloped by tamas the man with deluded buddhi is, by the intense expansive power (vikshhepa) goaded on by many sufferings.

(146) By these two powers is produced the bondage of the individual; deluded by these two he thinks the body to be the atman.

(147) Of the tree of conditioned life truly the seed is tamas, the sprout is the conviction that the body is the ego, attachment is the leaf, Karma truly is the sap, the body is the trunk, the vital airs are the branches of which the tops are the organs, the flowers the objects (of the organs), the fruit the variety of sufferings from manifold Karma, and jiva 1 is the bird that feeds.

1 Individual ego.

(148) The bondage of non-ego, rooted in ignorance, produces the torrent of all birth, death, sickness, old age and other evils of this (the jiva), which is in its own nature manifest without beginning or end.

(149) This bondage is incapable of being severed by weapons of offence or defence, by wind, or by fire or by tens of millions of acts,2 but only by the great sword of discriminative knowledge, sharp and shining, through the favour of Yoga.3

2 Religious sacrifices, etc.
3 Dhatuh is used in this sense in several Upanishads also.

(150) For a man having his mind fixed upon the conclusions of the Vedas (there is) the application to the duties prescribed for him; from such applications comes the self-purification of the jiva. In the purified buddhi is the knowledge of the supreme ego and from that is the extinction of conditioned life down to its roots.