Vivekacudamani is a profound prakarana Grandha (peripheral text) in Vedanta.  It explains all the subtle concepts in Vedanta very clearly. It is a text written by Sri Adi Shankaracharya in the form of a question and answer between the Guru (teacher) and Sishya (student), exactly like Bhagavat Gita.

The meaning of Vivekacudamani is ‘Viveka’ is the ability to investigate and ‘cudamani’ is the jewel in the crown or head.   So, Vivekacudamani is the jewel which adorns the head of a seeker.  In this text, the nature of the human mind, the nature of the human being, the nature of Supreme Reality and the connection between the Supreme Reality and the seeker are discussed.

The human being has several layers of personality.  The outermost layer is the gross body with physical features. These physical features are needed for social identification or gross identification.  Social identity is a temporary identity and it is not the real Self of a person.

A human being is a combination of five sheaths; in that the outer Sheath is the gross body.  Beneath this there are four more Sheaths which are not easily identifiable. One needs Viveka to identify it.   The most dominant aspect of the person is the ego; with this ego he identifies himself with the body-mind complex. In this text Sri Adi Shankaracharya has done a detailed analysis on the mind and ego in order to identify the real Self.  When everything is negated; what remains is the truth, sat-chit-ananda.

The essence of Vedanta is the Supreme Consciousness, which illumines our mind and it is the same Consciousness which illumines an ant, mosquito, elephant etc.  It is realized that this Consciousness, intelligence is all-pervading and infinite in nature, which implies that the seeker is not different from the Consciousness.

Vedanta further establishes that the ego is the biggest block for a seeker in the pursuit of Self-knowledge. A lot of unlearning is needed in order to transcend the individual ego. This involves Shravana (learning, hearing), Manana (understanding, thinking over it) and nididhyasana (contemplation). A seeker has to practice this three-tier process and this text helps a lot for this process. All the impressions are in the mind and so the mind need to be purified by this three-tier process; only a purified mind can realize the Self.  If the mind is purified then it no longer becomes an impediment for self-realization.

Sri Shankara dwells at length on the process of contemplation on Atman, the Self, which is same as the Brahman. The scriptures assert that the individual, the jiva is essentially of the same nature as Brahman. A seeker has to internalize this revelation and become Brahman. A person who realizes this in his life-time is said to be a Jivan-Mukta. This text explains in detail the nature of Jivan-Mukta.  Such a realized person goes beyond the limitations of his narrow- identity such as varna, religion, nationality, status, profession or any other constraints. A realized Person has unconditional love for all beings and demonstrates to all beings around him as to how a person can be like a Brahman itself. He exemplifies human life’s ultimate Goal. He is really adorned with the jewel of Viveka on his crown.

I will give an essence of this profound text in series from my next article.