!! Viveka Chudamani  of Shankaracharya !!

Slokas 245-246 with meanings in English

||om tat sat ||


Viveka Chudamani Slokas 245-246

Inquiry into Mahavakyas :
In slokas from  243 to  251 Master explains the Sruti Statement - "That thou art" 

What we heard so far :

The one-ness of Brahman and Jiva, which is proposed in the Maha Vakya - तत्वमसि - "That you are"  - comes out of the implied meaning of  Brahman and Jiva - but not through the literal meanings of the corresponding words. The literal meanings of the words some times take you to meanings which place words in in opposition with no commonality. Examples of such contrasting nature are: a glow worm and Sun; King and his soldier ; a well and the ocean ; and a tiny Atom and Mount Meru.

Before proceeding through the next two Slokas , we may review the so called contrasting words.

Though king and his soldiers stand at opposite ends, with King issuing orders which the servants have to follow, consider for a momemnt  a king without kingdom and the soldier without his shield. The king without his kingdom is a normal man and so is the servant without his shield. 

So is Mount Meru, subjected to an extraordinary force of an Atom bomb, it is reduced to a million atoms only.

A bucket of water from a well near the ocean, and  a bucket of water from the ocean itself - are one and the same.

So it is possible to see a commonality in contrasting words. Guru will explain how such a commonality can be seen in Supreme being and the Jiva.

Now slokas  245-246: 

तयोविरोधोऽयम् उपाधिकल्पितः
न वास्तवः कश्चित् उपाधिरेषः।
ईशस्य माया महदादि कारणम्
जीवस्य कार्यं शृणु पंचकोशः॥245||

First line:
तयोविरोधोऽयम् उपाधिकल्पितः -
तयोः अयं विरोधः उपाधिकल्पितः

The difference between them is because of the Upadhi associated with them.

The meaning of word 'upadhi' is - title , degree, byname , appearance .
The difference between them is caused by the title given to them. The minute we hear of King, we can only think of one who rules, gives orders. Hearing about King's servant or soldier , we imagine a person holding a shield and a spear. Devoid of his kingdom or power to rule , king is only a commoner , which is also a sodier devoid of his shield and spear. The images are the super imposed titles

Guru is literally saying , that the difference between them is because of
super imposed titles.

Second line:
न वास्तवः कश्चित्  - no real difference.

There is no real difference , other than the superimposed title.
That much is clear, quite easily in respect of King and his soldier; as well as  a bucket of water from the well and the ocean. It may require a little more explanation while comparing the Supreme being and the Jiva. So Guru explains Upadhi of Supreme being and Jiva in the next two lines


उपाधिः एषः - their superimposed conditioning ( are as follows)

Now we hear the Upadhi or Supreme being and Jiva

Third line:
ईशस्य माया महदादि कारणम् :

In the case of Ishwara - his Upadhi is his Maya which is the cause of  whole universe.

Ishwara is the controller , enforcer and destroyer. He is the cuase of the universe. Because he is the cause of everything , his Upadhi is signified by the Sruti line -  "कारणोपाधीश्वरः"  ;  Cause is his upadhi.
 

जीवस्य कार्यं शृणु पंचकोशः -
In case of Jiva, hear about his conditioning - it is five sheaths.

Sruti says  कार्योपाधिरयं जीवः - Jiva is the effect of the cause of creation ; Jiva is nothing but a bag of five sheaths which we went through earlier, namely annamaya Kosa, Prana maya Kosa, Manomaya Kosa, Vignyamaya Kosa and the final Anandamaya Kosa.

Sloka 245 summary

The difference between them ( Paramatman and Jiva) is because of their super imposed conditioning( title name etc). In reality there is no other difference. Maya , cause of all universe, is Iswara's upadhi ; Jiva is seen as a composition of five sheaths.

The words  कारण  and कार्य are nothing but cause and effect. Cause is - कारण ; and effect is कार्य;

Iswara is the cause of the universe. Jiva is the effect of that creation.


The one-ness  among them is to be elaborated.

Sloka  246;

एतावुपाधी परजीवयोः तयोः
सम्यक् निरासे न परो न जीवः ।
राज्यं नरेन्द्रस्य भटस्य खेटकः
तयो रपॊहे न भटो न राजा ॥246||

एतावुपाधी परजीवयोः तयोः-
These conditionings of  Paramatman and  Jiva

Guru is addressing the conditioning of Iswara which is Maya and teh conditioning of the Jiva which is five sheaths.

He will tell us what to do with them.
 
Second line:
सम्यक् निरासे न परो न जीवः
when they are completely eliminated , there is neither Iswara nor the Jiva.

Guru says , remove their conditioning , there is neither Iswara nor Jiva.
It is a littel difficult to make the sudden jump. To make it easy Guru is showing an example in the third and fourth lines .

Third and fourth lines:

राज्यं नरेन्द्रस्य भटस्य खेटकः
Kingdom of the king and the shield of the soldier


तयो रपॊहे न भटो न राजा
without them , there is no king nor the soldier.

If we remove the kingdome from the king and the shield and spear from the soldier, there is no king and no soldier.

Sloka 246 summary:

These conditionings of  Paramatman and Jiva, when they are completely eliminated , there is neither Iswara nor the Jiva. Without the Kingdom of the king and the shield of the soldier , there is no king and no soldier


In the contrasting picture of a King and a soldier, when their conditioning, namely Kindom and the shield are reomevd  both of them are commeoners or simply human beings, and  that is their one-ness

So is the case with Iswara's Maya and Jiva's five sheaths.

We heard in the earlier conversation of Guru and his disciple.
Guru asks the disciple about what is seen after all five sheaths are removed. At the end disciple concludes that he sees nothing. Guru then tells him that which saw the nothingness is the Self.

Similarly we will hear about what is left after removing Iswara's Maya and Jiva's five sheaths.


||ओम् तत् सत्॥



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Viveka Chudamani Home


Viveka Chudamani Slokas 245-245

with meanings in English

- Sloka Text in Devanagari

- Sloka Text in Telugu 

Om tat sat !

 

 

 

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