Appendix

Matter for Meditation

In order to train our minds properly to approach spiritual axioms, meditation is necessary. The immortal treatise Vivēkacūḍāmaṇi (The Crest Jewel of Wisdom) by Sri Sankaracharya is a fruitful source. It is incomparable evidence of the heights to which the human spirit can soar, and is useful as a subject for meditation.

From meditation on these verses — not only reading them — there arises an appropriate attitude of mind. This attitude is equivalent to the purification and making sensitive of our as yet imperfect organ of cognition of spirit.

The conceptions embedded in the teachings of Sri Sankaracharya are not contrary to mental logic, but they are the ultimate extension of it in the unconditioned truth in ourselves.

The verses given here are from the translation by Mohini M. Chatterji. For all those not yet acquainted with the age-old conceptions of Vedanta, these few extracts may serve as a necessary preparation.

At least they help towards an understanding of how a human being, seeking spiritual Light here and now, may proceed.

1. I prostrate myself before the true teacher — before him who is revealed by
the conclusions of all systems of Vedantic philosophy, but is himself unknown,
Govinda the supreme bliss.

4. One who, having with difficulty acquired a human incarnation and in that
manhood a knowledge of the scriptures, through delusions does not labour for
emancipation, is a suicide destroying himself in trying to attain illusive objects.

6. He may study the scriptures, propitiate the gods (by sacrifices), perform
religious ceremonies or offer devotion to the gods, yet he will not attain
salvation even during the succession of a hundred Brahma-yugas except by the
knowledge of union with the spirit.

8. Therefore the wise man strives for his salvation, having renounced his
desire for the enjoyment of external objects, and betakes himself to a true and
great teacher and accepts his teaching with an unshaken soul.

9. And by the practice of right discrimination attained by the path of Yoga he
rescues the soul — the soul drowned in the sea of conditioned existence.

11. Actions are for the purification of the heart, not for the attainment of the
real substance. The substance can be attained by right discrimination, but not by
any amount of Karma.

32. Among the instruments of emancipation the supreme is devotion.
Meditation upon the true form of the real Self is said to be devotion.

33. Some say devotion is meditation on the nature of one’s Atman. He who
possesses all these qualifications is one who is fit to know the true nature of
Atman.

39. The great and peaceful ones live regenerating the world like the coming of
spring, and after having themselves crossed the ocean of embodied existence,
help those who try to do the same thing, without personal motives.

40. This desire is spontaneous, since the natural tendency of great souls is to
remove the suffering of others just as the ambrosia-rayed (moon) of itself cools
the earth heated by the harsh rays of the sun.

46. There is an effectual means for the destruction of birth and re-birth by
which, crossing the ocean of changing life, thou wilt attain to supreme bliss.

53. Sons and others are capable of discharging a father’s debts; but no one
except oneself can remove (his own) bondage.

54. Others can remove the pain (caused by the weight of) burdens placed on
the head, but the pain (that arises) from hunger and the like cannot be removed
except by oneself.

61. If the supreme truth remains unknown, the study of the scriptures is
fruitless; even if the supreme truth is known the study of the scriptures is useless
(the study of the letter alone is useless, the spirit must be sought out by
intuition).

62. In a labyrinth of words the mind is lost like a man in a thick forest,
therefore with great efforts must be learned the truth about oneself from him who
knows the truth.

63. Of what use are the Vedas to him who has been bitten by the snake of
igriptures, incantationnorance? (Of what use are) scriptures, incantations, or any
medicine except the medicine of supreme knowledge?

64. Disease is never cured by (pronouncing) the name of medicine without
taking it; liberation is not achieved by the (pronunciation of the) word Brahman
without direct perception.

66. Without the conquest of enemies, without command of the treasure of a
vast country, by the mere words ‘I am a king’, it is impossible to become one.

86. He who lives only to nourish his own body, is like one who crosses a river
on an alligator thinking it to be a log of wood.

87. For one desirous of liberation, desires pertaining to the body, etc., lead to
the great death; he who is free from such desires is alone fit to gain liberation.

92. Know that this gross body, on which depend all the external
manifestations of the purusa, is but like the house of the householder.

128. Who during waking, dreaming, and dreamless slumber knows the mind
and its functions which are goodness and its absence — this is the Self.

134. This unmanifested spiritual consciousness begins to manifest like the
dawn in the pure heart, and shining like the mid-day sun in the ‘cave of wisdom’
illuminating whole universe.

160. Full of misery, covered with flesh, full of filth, full of sin, how can it be
the knower? The Self is different from this.

161. The deluded man considers the Self to be the mass of skin, flesh, fat,
bones and filth. The man of discrimination knows the essential form of self,
which is the supreme truth, to be without these as characteristic marks.

166. Because the false conviction that the self is merely the body, is the seed
producing pain in the form of birth and the rest, efforts must be made to abandon
that idea; the attraction towards material existence will then cease to exist.

175. Having produced attachment to the body and all other objects, it thus
binds the individual as an animal is bound by a rope, afterwards having produced
aversion to these as if to poison, that manas itself frees him from bondage.

176. Therefore the manas is the cause of the bondage of this individual and
also of its liberation. The manas when stained by passion is the cause of
bondage, and of liberation when pure, devoid of passion and ignorance.

178. In the forest land of objects wanders the great tiger named manas; pure
men desirous of liberation do not go there.

220. The fool, having seen the image of the sun in the water of the jar, thinks
it is the sun. So an ignorant man seeing the reflection of the Logos in any of the
upadhis (vehicles) takes it to be the real self.

221. As the wise man looks at the sun itself and not the jar, the water, or the
reflection; so also the wise man looks towards the self-illumined atman through
which the three (upadhis) are manifested.

222, 223. Thus it is that the individual, abandoning the body, the intellect and
the reflection of consciousness, becomes sinless, passionless and deathless by
knowing the self-illuminated atman, which is the seer, which is itself the eternal
knowledge, different from reality as well as unreality, eternal, all pervading,
supremely subtle, devoid of within and without, the only one, in the centre of
wisdom.

229. By reason of ignorance this universe appears multiform, but in reality all
this is Brahman (which remains), when all defective mental states have been
rejected.

235. The Lord, the knower of all objects in their reality, has declared, ‘I am
not distinct from them nor are they distinct from me’.

236. If this universe is a reality, it should be perceived in dreamless slumber.
Since, however, nothing is perceived (in that condition) it is as unreal as dreams.

240. When all the differences created by maya (illusion) have been rejected,
(there remains) a self-illumined something which is eternal, fixed, without stain,
immeasurable, without form, unmanifested, without name, indestructible.

241. The wise know that as the supreme truth which is absolute
consciousness, in which are united the knower, the known and the knowledge,
infinite and unchangeable.

271. Having given up following the way of the world, the body, or the
scriptures, remove the erroneous conception that Atman is Non-atman.

274. As by mixture with water and by friction, sandal-wood emits an excellent
odour, removing all bad smells; so divine aspiration becomes manifest when
external desire is washed away.

276. The aspiration towards atman is stifled by the net of un-spiritual desires,
for by constant devotion to atman they are destroyed, and divine aspiration
becomes manifest.

285. So long as the notion ‘I am this body’ is not completely abandoned,
control yourself with great concentration, and with great effort remove the
erroneous conception that Non-spirit is Spirit.

298. Abandon the notion of ‘I’ in family, clan, name, form and state of life,
which all depend on this physical body and also having abandoned the properties
of the linga s’arira, such as the feeling of being the actor and the rest —
become the essential form which is absolute bliss.

316. Vasana, nourished by these two,[1] produces the changing life of the ego.
Means for the destruction of this triad always, under all circumstances (should
be sought).

317. By everywhere, in every way, looking upon everything as Brahman, and
by strengthening the perception of the (one) reality this triad will disappear.

318. By the extinction of action, comes the extinction of anxious thought,
from this (latter) the extinction of vasana. The final extinction of Vasana is
liberation — that is also called jivanmukti.

327. The mind directed towards objects of sense determines their qualities
(and thus becomes attracted by them); from this determination arises desire, and
from desire human action.

328. From that comes separation from the real self; one thus separated
retrogrades. There is not seen the reascent but the destruction of the fallen one.
Therefore abandon thoughts (about sense-objects), the cause of all evils.

329. Therefore for one possessed of discrimination, knowing Brahman in
samadhi, there is no death other than from negligence. He who is absorbed in
(the real) self, achieves the fullest success; hence be heedful and self-controlled.

330. He who while living realizes unity (with the supreme), does so also when
devoid of the body. For him who is conscious of even the slightest differentiation
there is fear — so says the Yajur-Veda.

368. The first gate of yoga is the control of speech, then non-acceptance (of
anything and all), absence of expectation, absence of desire and uninterrupted
devotion to the one (reality).

376. For him who is possessed of excessive dispassion there is samadhi; for
him in samadhi there is unwavering spiritual perception. For him who has
perceived the essential reality there is liberation, and for the liberated atman
there is realization of eternal bliss.

385. Regard the indestructible and all-pervading Atman, freed from all the
upadhis — body, senses, vitality, mind, egotism and the rest — produced by
ignorance as mahakasa (great space).

389. The atman is Brahma, the atman is Visnu, the atman is Indra, the atman
is Siva, the atman is the whole of this universe; besides Atman there is nothing.
390. The atman is within, the atman is without, the atman is before; the atman
is behind, the atman is in the south, the atman is in the north, the atman is also
above and below.

398, On the removal of all phenomenal attributes imposed upon the self, the
true self is (found to be) the supreme, non-dual, and actionless Brahman.

419. The gain of the yogi who has attained perfection is the enjoyment of
perpetual bliss in the atman.

448. By the knowledge that I (the Logos) am Brahman, the Karma acquired in
a thousand millions of kalpas is extinguished, as is the Karma of dream life on
awakening.

450. Having realized his real self as space, without attachment and indifferent
(to worldly concerns), he never clings to (becomes united with) anything
whatsoever by future karma.

458. Similarly he who ever abides in the atman and thus in Parabrahman,
sees nothing else. Eating, sleeping, etc., are to a wise man but as the recollection
of objects seen in dream.

482. Through the realization of the atman with Brahman, (my) understanding
is utterly lost and mental activity has vanished. I know neither this nor that, nor
what this bliss is, its extent, nor its limit.

483. The greatness of parabrahman, like an ocean completely filled with the
nectar of realized bliss, can neither be described by speech nor conceived by
mind, but can be enjoyed. Just as a hailstone falling into the sea becomes
dissolved therein, so my mind becomes merged (even) in the least part of this
(parabrahman). Now am I happy with spiritual bliss.

484. Where is this world gone? By whom was it carried away ? When did it
disappear? A great wonder! That which was perceived but now exists no longer.

486. Here (in the state) I neither see, nor hear, nor know anything. I am
different from every other thing — the atman who is true bliss.

487. I bow before thee, O guru, who art good, great, free from attachment, the
embodiment of eternal, non-dual bliss: lord of the earth, the boundless
reservoir of compassion.

489. By thy grace I am happy and have attained my object, I am freed from
the shark of changing existence, and have gained the state of eternal bliss
and am perfect.

490. I am without attachment and without limbs. I am sexless and
indestructible. I am calm and endless. I am without stain and ancient.

491. I am not the doer, nor am I the enjoyer, I am without change and without
action. I am pure intelligence, one, and eternal bliss.

493. I am neither this nor that; but I shine forth in both of them and am pure
and supreme. I am neither within nor without, but I am all-pervading and non-
dual Brahman.

501. I have no more connection with the body than the sky with a cloud.
Whence, then, can I be subject to states (states of the body) such as waking,
dreaming and dreamless slumber?

513. I am that Brahman which is like space, subtle, non-dual, without
beginning and without end, and in which the whole universe, from the
unmanifested down to gross matter, is known to be a mere phantom.

517. I am all-pervading; I am everything and transcend everything; I am non-
dual, indestructible knowledge and eternal bliss.

518. O Guru, this supremacy over earth and heaven is attained by me through
thy compassion and greatly esteemed favour. To thee, great-souled one
(Mahatma), I bow down again and again.

519. O Guru, having in thy great compassion awakened me from the sound
sleep (of ignorance), thou hast saved me, roaming about in the dream-like forest
of birth, old age and death, created by maya, daily tormented by manifold
afflictions, and terrified by the tiger of egoism.

520. O Guru, I bow down before thee who art truth alone, who hast the
splendour of wisdom and who shinest in the form of the universe.
 

THE END