Vivekachudamani

Vivekachudamani (“The Crest-Jewel of Discrimination”) is a famous philosophical work in the Advaita Vedanta tradition, attributed to Adi Shankara. It is written in the form of a dialogue between a teacher and a student, where the teacher explains the nature of the Self (Atman) and the path to liberation (Moksha) through discrimination (viveka) and dispassion (vairagya).

Selected Verses

• Verse 16: An intelligent and learned man skilled in arguing in favour of the Scriptures and in refuting counte…
• Verse 17: The man who discriminates between the Real and the unreal, whose mind is turned away from the unreal…
• Verse 18: Regarding this, sages have spoken of four means of attainment, which alone being present, the devoti…
• Verse 19: First is enumerated discrimination between the Real and the unreal; next comes aversion to the enjoy…
• Verse 20: A firm conviction of the mind to the effect that Brahman is real and the universe unreal, is designa…
• Verse 21: Vairāgya or renunciation is the desire to give up all transitory enjoyments (ranging) from those of …
• Verse 22: The resting of the mind steadfastly on its Goal (viz. Brahman) after having detached itself from man…
• Verse 23: Turning both kinds of sense-organs away from sense-objects and placing them in their respective cent…
• Verse 24: The bearing of all afflictions without caring to redress them, being free (at the same time) from an…
• Verse 25: Acceptance by firm judgment as true of what the Scriptures and the Guru instruct, is called by sages…
• Verse 26: Not the mere indulgence of thought (in curiosity) but the constant concentration of the intellect (o…
• Verse 27: Mumukṣutā or yearning for Freedom is the desire to free oneself, by realising one’s true nature, fro…
• Verse 30: Where (however) this renunciation and yearning for Freedom are torpid, there calmness and the other …
• Verse 31: Among things conducive to Liberation, devotion (Bhakti) holds the supreme place. The seeking after o…
• Verse 51: A father has got his sons and others to free him from his debts, but he has got none but himself to …
• Verse 125: There is some Absolute Entity, the eternal substratum of the consciousness of egoism, the witness of …

References: Vedanta