by Shankaracharya
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Last annotated on August 6, 2016
Introductory
THE Upanishads, Buddha, and Śankara: these are the three great lights of Indian wisdom. Read more at location 30
The Upanishads far away in the golden age; in the bright dawn that has faded so many ages ago. Buddha, the Awakened One, Read more at location 31
sought to break down the barriers of caste and priestly privilege; to leave each man alone with the Universe, with no mediator between. Read more at location 33
Then followed Śankaracharya--Śankara the Teacher--who set himself to the preservation of the light; to burnishing the casket that held the lamp of wisdom. Busying himself chiefly with India, he saw that the light must be preserved, as far as its completeness and perfection were concerned, within the Brahman order, Read more at location 35
it is not enough for the mind to follow the lucid sentences of Śankara. "Freedom from the bondage of the world" demands something more. "Sickness is not cured by saying 'Medicine,' but by drinking it; so a man is not set free by the name of the Eternal, but by discerning the Eternal." The teaching must be woven into life and character if it is to bear fruit; it is not enough to contemplate the virtue of freedom from selfishness and sensuality in the abstract. Read more at location 59
01. THE CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM
01. FIRST STEPS ON THE PATH
PROLOGUE
(Verses 1--15)
For beings a human birth is hard to win, then manhood and holiness, then excellence in the path of wise law; hardest of all to win is wisdom. Discernment between Self and not-Self, true judgment, nearness to the Self of the Eternal and Freedom are not gained without a myriad of right acts in a hundred births. Read more at location 72
"There is no hope of immortality through riches," says the scripture. It is clear from this that rites cannot lead to Freedom. Read more at location 78
Setting all rites aside, let the wise, learned ones who approach the study of the Self strive for Freedom from the bondage of the world. Rites are to purify the thoughts, but not to gain the reality. The real is gained by Wisdom, not by a myriad of rites. When one steadily examines and clearly sees a rope, the fear that it is a serpent is destroyed. Knowledge is gained by discernment, Read more at location 82
Let the seeker after self-knowledge find the Teacher (the Higher Self), full of kindness and knowledge of the Eternal. Read more at location 85
THE FOUR PERFECTIONS
(Verses 16--34)
******** First is counted the Discernment between things lasting and unlasting. Next Dispassion, the indifference to self-indulgence here and in paradise. Then the Six Graces, beginning with Restfulness. Then the longing for Freedom. Read more at location 90
Eternal is real, the fleeting world is unreal;--this is that Discernment between things lasting and unlasting. Read more at location 91
this is Dispassion--a perpetual willingness to give up all sensual self-indulgence--everything lower than the Eternal, Read more at location 92
the Six Graces: a steady intentness of the mind on its goal;--this is Restfulness. And the steadying of the powers that act and perceive, each in its own sphere, turning them back from sensuality;--this is Self-control. Then the raising of the mind above external things;--this is the true Withdrawal. The enduring of all ills without petulance and without self-pity;--this is the right Endurance. An honest confidence in the teaching and the Teacher;--this is that Faith by which the treasure is gained. The intentness of the soul on the pure Eternal;--this is right Meditation, but not the indulgence of fancy. Read more at location 93
wish to untie, by discernment of their true nature, all the bonds woven by unwisdom, the bonds of selfishness and sensuality;--this is the longing for Freedom. Read more at location 98
**** When Dispassion and longing for Freedom are strong, then Restfulness and the other graces will bear fruit. Read more at location 100
Let him who possesses these Perfections and who would learn the reality of the Self, approach the wise Teacher (the Higher Self), from whom comes the loosing of bonds; who: is full of knowledge and perfect; who is not beaten by desire, who really knows the Eternal; who has found rest in the Eternal, at peace like a fuelless fire; who is full of selfless kindness, the friend of all that lives. Read more at location 103
THE APPEAL TO THE HIGHER SELF
(Verses 35--40)
THE BEGINNING OF THE TEACHING
(Verses 41--71)
The Wise One instils the truth in him who has approached him longing for Freedom, who is following the true path, calming the tumult of his mind and bringing Restfulness. Read more at location 118
(Note: The way to salvation) "This same path I point out to thee, for it is the way to destroy the world's fear. Crossing the ocean of the world by this path, thou shalt win the perfect joy." By discerning the aim of the wisdom-teaching (Vedânta) is born that most excellent knowledge. Then comes the final ending of the world's pain. The voice of the teaching plainly declares that faith, devotion, meditation, and the search for union are the means of Freedom for him who would be free. He who is perfect in these wins Freedom from the bodily bondage woven by unwisdom. Read more at location 121
THE PUPIL ASKS
"What is not-Self and what the Higher Self? And how can one discern between them?" Read more at location 129
THE MASTER ANSWERS
**** "The knowledge of the real by the eye of clear insight is to be gained by one's own sight and not by the teacher's. Read more at location 133
"None but a man's self is able to untie the knots of unwisdom, desire, and former acts, even in a myriad of ages. "Freedom is won by a perception of the Self's oneness with the Eternal, and not by the doctrines of Union or of Numbers, nor by rites and sciences. Read more at location 135
"When the Great Reality is not known the study of the scriptures is fruitless; when the Great Reality is known the study of the scriptures is also fruitless. Read more at location 139
(Note: Against salvation by confession or belief alone) "Sickness is not cured by saying 'Medicine,' but by drinking it. So a man is not set free by the name of the Eternal without discerning the Eternal. "Without piercing through the visible, without knowing the reality of the Self, how can men gain Freedom by mere outward words that end with utterances? Read more at location 142
"So by steady effort is gained the knowledge of those who know the Eternal, the lonely, stainless reality above all illusion; but not by desultory study. Read more at location 146
02. SELF, POTENCIES, VESTURES
**** THE first cause of Freedom is declared to be an utter turning back from lust after unenduring things. Thereafter Restfulness, Control, Endurance; a perfect Renouncing of all acts that cling and stain. Thereafter, the divine Word, a turning of the mind to it, a constant thinking on it by the pure one, long and uninterrupted. Then ridding himself altogether of doubt, and reaching wisdom, even here he enjoys the bliss of Nirvâna. Then the discerning between Self and not-Self that you must now awaken to, Read more at location 151
THE VESTURES
(Verses 72--107)
Sensuous things are keener to injure than the black snake's venom; poison slays only him who eats it, but these things slay only him who beholds them with his eyes. He who is free from the great snare, so hard to be rid of, of longing after sensuous things, he indeed builds for Freedom, and not another, even though knowing the six philosophies. Read more at location 164
********* If the love of Freedom is yours, then put sensuous things far away from you, like poison. But love, as the food of the gods, serenity, pity, pardon, rectitude, peacefulness and self-control; love them and honor them forever. Read more at location 171
He who seeks to behold the Self, although living to fatten his body, is going to cross the river, holding to a toothed beast, while thinking it a tree. For this delusion for the body and its delights is a great death for him who longs for Freedom; Read more at location 174
in dream-life the knowing soul shines of itself through the many and varied mind-pictures made during waking-life. Here the higher self shines of itself and rules, taking on the condition of doer, with pure thought as its disguise, Read more at location 193
Self-assertion is to be known as the cause of this false attribution of selfhood, as doer and enjoyer; and through substance and the other two potencies, it reaches expansion in the three modes. When sensuous things have affinity with it, it is happy; when the contrary, unhappy. So happiness and unhappiness are properties of this, and not of the Self which is perpetual bliss. Read more at location 201
THE THREE POTENCIES
(Verses 108--135)
Desire, wrath, greed, vanity, malice, self-assertion, jealousy, envy, are the terrible works of Force, its activities in man; therefore this is the cause of bondage. Then enveloping is the power of Darkness, whereby a thing appears as something else; Read more at location 213
Though a man be full of knowledge, learned, skillful, very subtle-sighted, if Darkness has wrapped him round, he sees not, though he be full of manifold instruction; he calls good that which is raised by error, and leans upon its properties, unlucky man that he is; great and hard to end is the enveloping power of Darkness. Read more at location 216
Of the potency of substance altogether pure the properties are grace, direct perception of the Self, and perfect peace; exulting gladness, a resting on the Self supreme, whereby he reaches the essence of real bliss. The unmanifest is characterized by these three potencies; it is the causal vesture of the Self; dreamless life is the mode where it lives freely, all the activities of the powers, and even of the knowing soul having sunk back into it. Every form of outward perceiving has come to rest, the knowing soul becomes latent in the Self from which it springs; the name of this is dreamless life, wherein he says "I know nothing at all of the noise of the moving world." Read more at location 224
**** There is a certain selfhood wherein the sense of "I" forever rests; who witnesses the three modes of being, who is other than the five veils; who is the only knower in waking, dreaming, dreamlessness; of all the activities of the knowing soul, whether good or bad--this is the "I"; Read more at location 232
Alike stranger to forming and deforming; of its own being, pure wakefulness; both being and non-being is this, besides it there is nothing else; this shines unchanging, this Supreme Self gleams in waking, dream and dreamlessness as "I," present as the witness of the knowing soul. Read more at location 243
BONDAGE AND FREEDOM
(Verses 136--153)
The thought that what is not That is That grows up in the fool through darkness; because no discernment is there, it wells up, as the thought that a rope is a snake; thereupon a mighty multitude of fatuities fall on him who accepts this error, for he who grasps the unreal is bound; mark this, my companion. Read more at location 250
**** When the real Self with its stainless light recedes, a man thinking "this body is I," calls it the Self; then by lust and hate and all the potencies of bondage, the great power of Force that they call extension greatly afflicts him. Torn by the gnawing of the toothed beast of great delusion; wandered from the Self, accepting every changing mood of mind as himself, through this potency, in the shoreless ocean of birth and death, full of the poison of sensuous things, sinking and rising, he wanders, mean-minded, despicable-minded. Read more at location 253
THE FREEING OF THE SELF
(Verses 148--154)
As the reed from the tiger grass, so separating from the congeries of things visible the hidden Self within, which is detached, not involved in actions, and dissolving all in the Self, he who stands thus, has attained liberation. Read more at location 275
THE VESTURE FORMED OF FOOD
(Verses 154--164)
The food-formed vesture is this body, which comes into being through food, which lives by food, which perishes without food. It is formed of cuticle, skin, flesh, blood, bone, water; this is not worthy to be the Self, eternally pure. The Self was before birth or death, and now is; how can it be born for the moment, fleeting, unstable of nature, not unified, inert, beheld like a jar? For the Self is the witness of all changes of form. Read more at location 277
Therefore, O thou of mind deluded, put away the thought that this body is the Self, this compound of skin, flesh, fat, bone and water; discern the universal Self, the Eternal, changeless, and enjoy supreme peace. Read more at location 287
THE VESTURE FORMED OF VITAL BREATH
(Verses 165--166)
THE VESTURE FORMED OF MIND
(Verses 167--183)
Therefore mind is the cause of man's bondage, and in turn of his liberation; when darkened by the powers of passion it is the cause of bondage, and when pure of passion and darkness it is the cause of liberation. Read more at location 309
(Note: Akin to Jesus, Paul) Through the sole power of liberation uprooting desire for sensuous things, and ridding himself of all bondage to works, he who through faith in the Real stands firm in the teaching, shakes off the very essence of passion from the understanding. Read more at location 320
THE VESTURE FORMED OF INTELLIGENCE
(Verses 184--197)
**** (Note: mistaken dualism, separation from God) By constantly attributing to itself the body, state, condition, duties and works, thinking, "These are mine," this intelligence-formed vesture, brightly shining because it stands closest to the higher Self, becomes the vesture of the Self, and, thinking itself to be the Self, wanders in the circle of birth and death. This, formed of intelligence, is the light that shines in the vital breaths, in the heart; the Self who stands forever wears this vesture as actor and experiencer. The Self, assuming the limitation of the intelligence, self-deluded by the error of the intelligence, though it is the universal Self, yet views itself as separate from the Self; as the potter views the jars as separate from the clay. Read more at location 330
THE DISCIPLE SPEAKS
THE MASTER ANSWERS
03. THE WITNESS
THE MANIFEST AND THE HIDDEN SELF
(Verses 198--209)
the binding of the Self by the intellect is false, coming from unknowledge. This binding is untied by perfect knowledge, not otherwise; the discerning of the oneness of the Eternal and the Self is held by the scripture to be perfect knowledge. And this is accomplished by perfectly discerning between Self and not-self; thereafter discernment is to be gained between individual and universal Self. Read more at location 352
The principal sphere of the bliss-formed veil is in dreamless sleep; in dreaming and waking it is in part manifest when blissful objects are beheld. Nor is this bliss-formed veil the higher Self, for it wears a disguise, it is a form of objective nature; it is an effect caused by good acts, accumulated in this changeful form. When the five veils are taken away, according to inference and scripture, what remains after they are taken away is the Witness, in a form born of awakening. This is the Self, self-shining, distinguished from the five veils; this is the Witness in the three modes of perceiving, without change, without stain. The wise should know it as Being and Bliss, as his own Self. Read more at location 361
**** (Note: Self as Parmenides permanence, self as Hericlitus impermanence) In waking, dreaming, dreamlessness, that Self is clearly manifested, appearing through its universal form always as "I," as the "I" within, uniformly. This is "I" beholding intellect and the rest that partake of varied forms and changes. It is manifest through eternal blissful self-consciousness; know that as the Self here in the heart. Read more at location 373
**** Putting away in thought body and intellect as alike reflections of consciousness, discerning the seer, hid in the secret place, the Self, the partless awakening, the universal shining, distinguished alike from what exists and what does not exist; the eternal lord, all-present, very subtle, devoid of within and without, nothing but self; discerning this perfectly, in its own form, a man is sinless, passionless, deathless. Sorrowless, altogether bliss, full of wisdom, fearing nothing at all from anything; there is no other path of freedom from the bondage of the world but knowledge of the reality of his Self, for him who would be free. Read more at location 378
Therefore one should perfectly know that the Eternal and the Self are not divided; for the wise who has become the Eternal does not return again to birth and death. Read more at location 384
The pot made of clay is not separate from the clay, for all through it is in its own nature clay; the form of the pot is not separate; whence then the pot? It is mere name, built up of illusion. By no one can the form of the pot be seen, separate from the clay; hence the pot is built of delusion, but the real thing is the clay, like the supreme Being. Read more at location 388
The Eternal is perpetually conceived as formed; but what is attributed to the Eternal is a name only. Therefore the supreme Eternal is Being, secondless, of the form of pure knowledge, stainless, peaceful, free from beginning or ending, changeless, its own-nature is unbroken bliss. Read more at location 399
THAT THOU ART
(Verses 241--251)
********** The Eternal and the Self, indicated by the two words "that" and "thou," when clearly understood, according to the Scripture "THAT THOU ART," are one; their oneness is again ascertained. Read more at location 405
**** These are the two disguises, of the Supreme and the individual life; when they are set aside together, there is no longer the Supreme nor the individual life. Read more at location 410
the two are to be well observed in their essential unity. Neither their contradictory character nor their non-contradictory character is all; but the real and essential Being is to be reached, in order to gain the essence in which they are one and undivided. Read more at location 416
Every pot and vessel has always clay as its cause, and its material is clay; just like this, this world is engendered by the Real, and has the Real as its Self, the Real is its material altogether. That Real than which there is none higher, THAT THOU ART, the restful, the stainless, secondless Eternal, the supreme. Read more at location 423
THE MANIFEST AND THE HIDDEN SELF
(Verses 252--268)
********** all this world, body and organs, vital breath and personality are all unreal, in so much THOU ART THAT, the restful, the stainless, secondless Eternal, the supreme. Read more at location 427
**** quite free from name and form and quality and fault; beyond space and time and objects--this is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART; become it in the Self. Read more at location 429
Birth and growth, decline and loss, sickness and death it is free from, and unfading; the cause of emanation, preservation, destruction, is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART; become it in the Self. Read more at location 434
Where all difference is cast aside, all distinction is cast away, a waveless ocean, motionless; ever free, with undivided form--this is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART; become it in the Self. Read more at location 436
Free from doubt and change, great, unchanging; where changing and unchanging are merged in one Supreme; eternal, unfading joy, unstained--this is the Eternal, THAT THOU ART; become it in the Self. Read more at location 438
04. FINDING THE REAL SELF
BONDAGE THROUGH IMAGINATION
(Verses 269--276)
Give up following after the world, give up following after the body, give up following after the ritual law; make an end of transferring selfhood to these. Through a man's imagination being full of the world, through his imagination being full of the ritual law, through his imagination being full of the body, wisdom, truly, is not born in him. Read more at location 454
SELFHOOD TRANSFERRED TO THINGS NOT SELF
(Verses 277--298)
Thinking: "I am not this separate life but the supreme Eternal," beginning by rejecting all but this, make an end of transferring selfhood to things not Self; it comes from the swift impetus of imaginings. Read more at location 468
Through sentences like "That thou art" awaking to the oneness of the Eternal and the Self, to confirm the Self in the Eternal, make an end of transferring selfhood to things not Self. Read more at location 472
THE REAL IN THINGS UNREAL
let a man put off this false body of desires, worn by the Self as a player puts on a costume. For the Self, all that is seen is but mirage; it lasts but for a moment, we see, and know it is not "I"; how could "I know all" be said of the personal self that changes every moment? The real "I" is witness of the personal self and its powers; as its being is perceived always, even in dreamless sleep. Read more at location 483
********** The beholder of every change in things that change, can be the unchanging alone; in the mind's desires, in dreams, in dreamless sleep the insubstantial nature of things that change is clearly perceived again and again. Read more at location 487
Put away the false selfhood of family and race and name, of form and rank, for these dwell in this body; put away the actorhood and other powers of the body of form; become the Self whose self is partless joy. Read more at location 490
Other bonds of man are seen, causes of birth and death, but the root and first form of them is selfishness. Read more at location 491
05. THE POWER OF MIND-IMAGES
(Verses 299--378)
But he who in the body thinks "this am I," a delusion built up by the mind through darkness; when this delusion is destroyed for him without remainder, there arises for him the realization of Self as the Eternal, free from all bondage. Read more at location 495
**** The treasure of the bliss of the Eternal is guarded by the terrible serpent of personality, very powerful, enveloping the Self, with three fierce heads--the three nature-powers; cutting off these three heads with the great sword of discernment, guided by the divine teachings, and destroying the serpent, the wise man may enter into that joy-bringing treasure. Read more at location 497
there is no freedom for him who seeks union, while selfishness endures. Read more at location 500
When the false self ceases utterly, and the motions of the mind caused by it come to an end, then, by discerning the hidden Self, the real truth that "I am that" is found. Read more at location 501
The desirer is constituted by the bodily self; how can the cause of desire be different? Hence the motion of enticement to sensual objects is the cause of world-bondage, through attachment to what is other than Self. Read more at location 513
**** (Note: circular) From the growth of mind-images comes the action, from action the mind-image grows; hence the man's pilgrimage ceases not. Read more at location 515
Through beholding sensual objects, forgetfulness bewilders a wise man even, as a woman her favorite lover. Read more at location 527
********** he who beholds difference has fear. Read more at location 535
All scripture, tradition and logic disregarding, whoever makes the thought of self in visible things, falls upon sorrow after sorrow; thus disregarding, he is like a thief in darkness. Read more at location 537
Attachment to the outward brings as its fruit the perpetual increase of evil mind-images. Knowing this and putting away outward things by discernment, let him place his attachment in the Self forever. Read more at location 541
There is no freedom for him who is full of attachment to the body and its like; for him who is free, there is no wish for the body and its like; the dreamer is not awake, he who is awake dreams not; for these things are the opposites of each other. Read more at location 546
Perfect discernment, born of clear awakening, arises free from doubt, and pure of all bondage, where there is no propelling power towards delusive objects, once the division is made between the real natures of the seer and what is seen; he cuts the bonds of delusion that glamor makes, and, after that, there is no more pilgrimage for the free. The flame of discernment of the oneness of the higher and the lower, burns up the forest of unwisdom utterly. What Read more at location 560
********* Consciousness, eternal, non-dual, partless, uniform, witness of intellect and the rest, different from existent and non-existent; its real meaning is the idea of "I"; a union of being and bliss--this is the higher Self. Read more at location 569
Very subtle, as it were, is the reality of the supreme Self, nor can it be reached by gross vision; by the exceedingly subtle state of ecstasy it is to be known by those who are worthy, whose minds are altogether pure. Read more at location 583
Through unwavering ecstasy is clearly understood the reality of the Eternal, fixed and sure. This cannot be when other thoughts are confused with it, by the motions of the mind. Therefore with powers of sense controlled enter in ecstasy into the hidden Self, with mind at peace perpetually; destroy the darkness made by beginningless unwisdom, through the clear view of the oneness of the real. Read more at location 591
**** The first door of union is the checking of voice, the cessation of grasping, freedom from expectation and longing, the character bent ever on the one end. Read more at location 593
**** A centering of the mind on the one end, is the cause of the cessation of sensuality; control is the cause that puts an end to imaginings; by peace, the mind-image of the personality is melted away; from this arises unshaken enjoyment of the essence of bliss in the Eternal for ever, for him who seeks union; Read more at location 594
Outward attachment arises through sensual objects; inward attachment, through personality. Only he who, resting in the Eternal, is free from passion, is able to give them up. Freedom from passion and awakening are the wings of the spirit. Read more at location 602
Cut off all hope in sensual objects which are like poison, the cause of death; abandon all fancies of birth and family and social state; put all ritual actions far away; renounce the illusion of self -dwelling in the body, center the consciousness on the Self. Thou art the seer, thou art the stainless, thou art in truth the supreme, secondless Eternal. Read more at location 608
06. FREE EVEN IN LIFE
(Verses 379--438)
The ether, freed from its hundred disguises--water-pots, jars, corn-measures and the like--is one and not divided, thus also, the pure supreme, freed from personality, is one. Read more at location 622
**** The Evolver is the Self, the Pervader is the Self, the Sky-lord is the Self, the Destroyer is the Self; all this universe is the Self; there is nothing but the Self. Inward is the Self, outward also is the Self; the Self is to the east, the Self is also to the west. The Self is to the south, the Self is also to the north. The Self is above, the Self is beneath. Read more at location 626
********** Just as wave and foam, eddy and bubble are in their own nature water; so, from the body to the personality, all is consciousness, the pure essence of consciousness. [390] Read more at location 629
**** (Note: **** relate to Judaism?) Being that is plunged in the oneness of the Eternal and the Self made pure, that wavers not and is pure consciousness alone, is called wisdom. Read more at location 682
In this world, whose very nature is full of differences, where quality and defect are distinguished, to regard all things everywhere as the same, this is the mark of him who is free even in life. Accepting wished and unwished objects with equanimity in the Self, and changing not in either event, is the mark of him who is free even in life. Read more at location 689
Note: ********* Edit
he distinguishes not between what is within and without, this is the mark of him who is free even in life. Read more at location 692
He who has discerned the Eternal in the Self, through the power of sacred books, who is free from the bondage of the world, bears the mark of one who is free even in life. Read more at location 694
07. THE THREE KINDS OF WORKS
(Verses 439--468)
HE who through wisdom discerns that there is no division between the Eternal and the manifested world, bears the mark of one who is free even in life. Read more at location 698
From the knowledge that I am the Eternal, the accumulated Works, heaped up even through hundreds of myriads of ages, melt away like the work of dream, on awaking. Whatever one does while dreaming, however good or bad it seems, what effect has it on him, on awaking to send him either to hell or heaven? Read more at location 707
The home of Being, the home of Consciousness, the home of Bliss enduring, changeless; one, verily, without a second, is the Eternal. There is no difference at all. Full of the pure essence of the unmanifested, endless, at the crown of all; one, verily, without a second, is the Eternal; there is no difference at all. That can neither be put away, nor sought after; that can neither be taken nor approached--one, verily, without a second, is the Eternal; there is no difference at all. Without qualities, without parts, subtle, without wavering, without stain; one, verily, without a second, is the Eternal; there is no difference at all. [468] Read more at location 732
08. MASTER AND PUPIL
(Verses 469--518)
THE TEACHER SPEAKS:
**** THAT, whose nature no man can define; where is no pasturage for mind or word; one, verily, without second, is the Eternal; there is no difference at all. Read more at location 738
THE PUPIL SPEAKS:
I see not, nor hear, nor know aught of this world; for I bear the mark of the Self, whose form is being and bliss. Read more at location 760
Unbound am I, formless am I, without distinction am I, no longer able to be broken; in perfect peace am I, and endless; I am stainless, immemorial. I am neither the doer nor enjoyer; mine are neither change nor act. I am in nature pure awakening. I am the lonely One, august for ever. Read more at location 766
I am apart from the personal self that sees, hears, speaks, acts, and enjoys; everlasting, innermost, without act; the limitless, unbound, perfect Self awakened. Read more at location 768
**** I am the Creator, I am he who makes an end of hell, he who makes an end of all things old; I am the Spirit, I am the Lord; I am partless awakening, the endless witness; for me there is no longer any Lord, no longer I nor mine. For I, verily, consist in all beings, enveloping them within and without, through the Self that knows; I myself am at once the enjoyer and all that is to be enjoyed--whatever was seen before as separate--through identity with it. Read more at location 771
In me, the ocean of partless Bliss, world-waves rise manifold, and fall again, through the storm-winds of glamor's magic. In me, the material and other worlds are built up by glamor, through swift vibrations; Read more at location 774
I am not bound by the body, as the clear sky is not bound by clouds; Read more at location 779
The veil comes, and, verily, departs again; it alone performs works and enjoys them. It alone wastes away and dies, while I stand like a mighty mountain, forever unmoved. Read more at location 780
I am neither the actor, nor the causer of acts; I am neither he who enjoys, nor he who brings enjoyment; I am neither the seer, nor he who gives sight; I am the unequalled Self, self-luminous. Read more at location 788
*********** Let Nature suffer changes ten times, a hundred, a thousand times; what have I to do with these commotions? For the lowering clouds touch not the sky. From the unmanifest, down to grossest things, all this world encountered is a mere reflection only. Like the ether, subtle, without beginning or end, is the secondless Eternal; and what that is, I am. All-embracing, illumining all things; under all forms all-present, yet outside all; everlasting, pure, unmoved, unchanging, is the secondless Eternal; and what that is, I am. Read more at location 793
(Note: salvation) In that great dream that glamor makes, in that forest of birth and age and death, I wander wearying; daily stricken by the heat, and haunted by the tiger of selfishness; thou hast saved me, my guide, by waking me out of sleep. Read more at location 801
09. THE PERFECT SAGE
(Verses 519--548)
THE TEACHER SPEAKS:
**** (Note: akin to Jesus) This world is the offspring of the Eternal's thought; thus, verily, the Eternal is the Real in all things. Behold it thus by the vision of the higher Self, with mind full of peace, in every mode of being. A certain Being, apart from form, is seen everywhere, of those who have eyes to see. Read more at location 808
For through enjoyment of unreal things, there is no contentment at all, nor any getting rid of pain. Therefore contented by enjoying the essence of secondless bliss, stand thou rejoicing, resting on the Self that is true Being. Therefore beholding thyself everywhere, and considering thyself as secondless, let the time go by for thee, mighty minded one, rejoicing in the bliss that is thine own. Read more at location 812
**** Whether walking or standing, sitting or lying down, or wherever he may be, let the sage dwell according to his will, the wise man finding joy ever within himself. Read more at location 819
Of what avail are the rites of religion for one who has attained to wisdom? What religious rite will help one to know a jar, without having perceived it? But where there is direct perception, the object is perfectly understood. Read more at location 821
********* The direct knowledge, that "I am Devadatta," depends on nothing else; and it is precisely thus with the knowledge that "l am the Eternal," in the case of the knower of the Eternal. Read more at location 824
*********** (Note: relates to Polanyi transcendence) How could the not Self, the mere chaff of unreality, be the illuminer of that through the radiance of which the whole world shines, as through the sun? How can the scriptures or laws or traditions, or even all beings, illumine that by which alone they gain their worth? Read more at location 825
Things of sense neither distress nor elate him beyond measure, nor is he attached to, or repelled by them; in the Self he ever joys, the Self is his rejoicing; altogether contented by the essence of uninterrupted bliss. As a child, who is free from hunger and bodily pain, finds delight in play, so the wise man rejoices, free from the sorrow of "I" and "mine." Read more at location 828
******* his home is space; his couch, the world; he moves in paths where the beaten road is ended; the wise man, delighting in the supreme Eternal. Dwelling in this body as a mere temporary halting-place, he meets the things of sense just as they come, like a child subject to another's will; thus lives the knower of the Self, who shows no outward sign, nor is attached to external things. Read more at location 833
Now as a fool, now a wise man; now as a great and wealthy king; now a wanderer, now a sage; now dwelling like a serpent, solitary; now full of honor; now rejected and unknown; thus the sage walks, ever rejoicing in perfect bliss. Though without wealth, contented ever; ever rejoicing, though without sensuous enjoyments; though not like others, yet ever seeming as the rest. Ever active, though acting not at all; though tasting no experience, yet experiencing all; bodiless, though possessing a body; though limited, yet penetrating all. Read more at location 838
Just as in an eclipse of the sun, people say, "the sun is darkened," though the sun indeed is not darkened, and they speak ignorantly, knowing not the truth of things. Thus verily they behold the most excellent knower of Brahma as though bound to a body, while he is in truth freed for ever from the body, and they are deluded by the mere seeming of the body. Read more at location 844
10. FOREVER FREE
(Verses 549--561)
THE SERPENT'S SLOUGH
the adept himself dwells in silence, looking on, like the center of a wheel, having neither doubts nor desires. He no longer engages his powers in things of sense, nor needs to disengage them; for he stands in the character of observer only. He no longer looks at all to the personal reward of his acts; for his heart is full of exultation, drunk with the abounding essence of bliss. Read more at location 851
******** Putting off the body is not Freedom, any more than putting away one's staff and waterpot; but getting free from the knots of unwisdom in the heart--that is Freedom, in very deed. Read more at location 860
THE SELF ENDURES
(Verses 562--574)
As, when the jar is broken, the space in it becomes clear space, so, when the disguises melt away, the Eternal stands as the Eternal and the Self. Read more at location 869
(Note: logic of reincarnation, moksha) Thus reaching bodiless purity, mere Being, partless, the being of the Eternal, the sage returns to this world no more. He whose forms born of unwisdom are burnt up by knowledge of oneness with the everlasting Self, since he has become the Eternal, how could he, being the Eternal, come to birth again? Read more at location 871
Both bonds and the getting rid of them are works of glamor, and exist not really in the Self; they are like the presence of the imagined serpent and its vanishing, in the rope which really does not change. Read more at location 873
The belief that bondage of the Real, is, and the belief that it has ceased, are both mere things of thought; not of the everlasting Real. Read more at location 878
BENEDICTION
(Verses 575--580)
This secret of secrets supreme, the perfect attainment, the perfection of the Self, has been shown to thee by me today; making thee as my new-born child, freed from the sin of the iron age, all thought of desire gone, making towards Freedom. Read more at location 883
Therefore let all those who put away and cast aside every sin of thought, who are sated with this world's joys, whose thoughts are full of peace, who delight in words of wisdom, who rule themselves, who long to be free, draw near to this teaching, which is dedicated to them. Read more at location 888
To those who, on the road of birth and death, are sore stricken by the heat that the rays of the sun of pain pour down; who wander through this desert-world, in weariness and longing for water; this well-spring of wisdom, close at hand, is pointed out, to bring them joy--the secondless Eternal. This Teaching of Śankara's bringing Liberation, wins the victory for them. Read more at location 890
Thus is ended THE CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM, made by the ever-blessed ŚANKARA, pupil at the holy feet of GOVINDA his Teacher, the supreme Swan, the Wanderer of the World. Read more at location 892
02. OTHER WRITINGS
01. The Heritage Of The Brâhmans
IT is said that long ago, in the childhood of the world, the senses were so fine that we could hear the growing of the grass, the rustling of the opening buds of spring. By a memory of these early senses, by the faint remnant of them that the long ages in their passage have left us, we can hear now the faint stirring of the opening buds of a new spring of intellectual life, a new period in the spiritual thought of the world; and the key-note of this new period is the East, the wisdom of the East, the thought and ideals of the East. Not merely or necessarily the East in latitude, but rather the Eastern side of man--that East in the soul of every man where the sun rises, where the light of intuition opens its first dawning rays, and, "rising, guides the lesser lives among its rays." Read more at location 895
The deepest curiosity of the Americans and Germans, turning towards India, unquestionably centers on the Brâhmans; Read more at location 908
to show the growth and consolidation of their power in the days of Râma, and through the struggles of the great war of the PÂṆḌU and KURU princes; to point to certain dark sides of their development that had become visible in Buddha's days; and at last to fill in the splendid picture of Brâhmanic advance and Brâhmanic development in Śankarâchârya's days. Read more at location 912
when the Smârta Brâhmans who have preserved most clearly the splendid tradition of Śankara relax a little their reserve, we shall--it can hardly be doubted--have a picture of that great man and his times as perfect and full of color as the picture we have of Plato's times, and the thought of Plato who, more than any other philosopher, resembles Śankara. Read more at location 915
There is a dim tradition, in the oldest Indian books, in the great Upanishads, and the earlier Vedic hymns, that the Brâhmans were not in the beginning the spiritual teachers of India; that they received their earliest wisdom from the Royal Sages of the Râjanya or Kshattriya race. Read more at location 920
That Krishna, the spiritual hero of the Mahâbhârata war, whose mission it was to usher in the Iron Age of Kali Yuga, was no Brâhman but a Kshattriya, who traced his doctrines from Manu the Kshattriya through the Royal Sages, is enough to show that in the days of the great war, the Brâhmans had not yet claimed as quite their own the teachings of wisdom which it was their mission to hand down through the ages. Read more at location 933
The great war, according to Indian tradition, was fought out five thousand years ago. And, after the great war, in which so many Kshattriya princes fell, the keeping of the Sacred records began to pass completely into the hands of the Brâhmans. Read more at location 936
the Brâhman's unparalleled genius for order gradually moulded this ideal into a set of definite rules, a series of religious ceremonies, which laid hold on his life Read more at location 942
Whether the Brâhmans were originally of the fair, almost white race which forms their nucleus today, and whose distinctive physical character and color make a Brâhman of pure type at once recognizable in an assemblage of Hindus, is a question difficult to solve. We find in the oldest Indian books that: "The color of the Brâhman is white," Read more at location 947
The priestcraft, by a second step, began to weave ambitions, to seek a share of political power, and at last, a practical predominance in the state, which threatened to become a spiritual tyranny. Read more at location 956
these developments, inseparable from the weakness of human life, were but the rusting of the outer layer of the casket in which the wisdom of the Golden Age was handed down. There were also within the Brâhman order--as there are today--men who held to the high ideal of their past; Read more at location 958
The greatest of these followers of that high idea, in later days, within the Brâhman caste, was Śankarâchârya, the Brâhman Sage of Southern India. Read more at location 961
Śankarâchârya began the work of reforming the Brâhman caste from within. A few centuries before him, Buddha had scattered broadcast through India, Read more at location 964
Śankara did all his overpowering genius could accomplish to turn the Brâhmans from too exclusive following after ceremonial; to lead them back to the spiritual wisdom, the recognition of the inner light of the soul, which was India's greatest heritage; Read more at location 979
He set himself, above all, to cleanse the inner lining of the casket where India's treasures lay concealed; Read more at location 983
under the Emperor Akbar, the great Indian monarch of the sixteenth century who conceived and framed a high ideal of religious tolerance and mutual understanding Read more at location 994
Two generations after Akbar, Akbar's noblest and most ill-fated descendant, Prince Dara Shukoh, received from the Brâhmans the permission to translate into Persian a series of the Upanishads, including the Great Upanishads of which something has been already said. This Persian translation, besides following the words of the old records, put into visible form much that had been hidden between the lines, and followed, in some degree, the new light that had been shed on the Upanishads by the genius of Śankarâchârya. This Persian translation of the Upanishads, which embodies a very valuable tradition of their hidden meaning, made about the year 1640, was found by Anquetil Duperron in 1775, and by him translated into Latin. From Anquetil Duperron this "Key to the Indian Sanctuary" passed to Schopenhauer, and becoming "the comfort of his life, the comfort of his death" Read more at location 996
02. The Awakening To The Self
Among all causes, wisdom is the only cause of perfect Freedom; as cookery without fire, so perfect Freedom cannot be accomplished without wisdom. Works cannot destroy unwisdom, as these two are not contraries; Read more at location 1013
This world is like a dream, crowded with loves and hates; in its own time it shines like a reality; but on awakening it becomes unreal. Read more at location 1017
Through this difference of vesture, race, name, and home are attributed to the Self, as difference of taste and color to pure water. Read more at location 1021
Holding the five life-breaths, mind, reason, and the ten perceiving and acting powers, formed of unmingled elements, is the subtle vesture, the instrument of enjoyment. Formed through the beginningless, ineffable error of separateness, is the causal vesture. One should hold the Self to be different from these three vestures. In the presence of the five veils, the pure Self seems to share their nature; Read more at location 1023
The pure Self within should be wisely discerned from the veils that surround it, Read more at location 1027
**** (Note: God as existence, awareness, akin to Yahweh) Shining is the sun's nature; coldness, the water's; heat, the fire's; so the Self's nature is Being, Consciousness, Bliss, perpetual spotlessness. Read more at location 1034
******** The Self is believed to be the habitual life, as a rope is believed to be a snake; and thus fear arises. But when it is known that 'I am not the habitual life but the Self' then there can be no more fear. Read more at location 1038
the steadily-held remembrance that 'I am the Eternal' takes away all unwisdom, as the healing essence stills all pain. Read more at location 1049
03. The Awakening To Reality
INTRODUCTORY
BY CHARLES JOHNSTON
Happily Śankara has left us a Key in his own work, the "Awakening to Reality," where nearly every special word of his philosophy is exactly defined. We have only to try to find the best English translation of his definitions, Read more at location 1091
This "Awakening to Reality" is what we have called it--a catechism. And in a catechism we can hardly expect the perfect poetical form and splendid imagery of works like the "Awakening to the Self." What we shall find, is lucidity, accuracy, grasp, coherence; but not poetical beauty. Read more at location 1094
I.
THE FOUR PERFECTIONS
**** What are the Four Perfections? --The Discerning between lasting and unlasting things; No Rage for enjoying the fruit of works, either here or there; the Six Graces that follow Peace; and then the Longing to be free. Read more at location 1100
What is No Rage? --A lack of longing for enjoyments here and in the heaven-world. Read more at location 1102
What is possession of the Perfections that follow Peace? --Peace; Self-Control; Steadiness; Sturdiness; Confidence; Intentness. Read more at location 1103
What is Peace? --A firm hold on emotion. What is Self-Control? --A firm hold on the lust of the eyes and the outward powers. What is Steadiness? --A following out of one's own genius. What is Sturdiness? --A readiness to bear opposing forces, like cold and heat, pleasure and pain. What is Confidence? --Confidence is a reliance on the Voice of the Teacher and Final Wisdom. What is Intentness? --One-pointedness of the imagination. Read more at location 1104
THE DISCERNING OF REALITY,
SELF, VESTURES, VEILS, MODES
THE THREE VESTURES
THE THREE MODES
What are the Three Modes? --The Modes of Waking, Dreaming, Dreamlessness. Read more at location 1126
THE FIVE VEILS
What are the Five Veils? --The Food-formed; the Life-formed; the Emotion-formed; the Knowledge-formed; the Bliss-formed. Read more at location 1133
What is the Bliss-formed? --This verily is the Substance not quite pure because of the unwisdom that gives birth to the Causal Vesture; in it are founded all joys; this is the Bliss-formed Veil. Read more at location 1139
By saying: "Mine are the lives; mine is emotion; mine is the soul; mine is the wisdom"; these are recognized as possessions, And just as a bracelet, a necklace, a house and such things separated from one's self, are recognized as possessions, so the Five Veils and the Vestures, recognized as possessions, are not the Self (the Possessor). Read more at location 1140
What then, is the Self? --It is that whose own-nature is Being, Consciousness, Bliss. Read more at location 1143
**** What is Being? --What stands through the Three Times (Present, Past, Future)--this is Being. Read more at location 1143
What is Consciousness? --The own-nature of Perceiving. Read more at location 1144
What is Bliss? --The own-nature of joy. Read more at location 1145
II.
THE PRIMITIVE SEVEN
Dwelling together with the Evolver in glamor, who is the very self of the three potencies: substance, force, and space. From this glamor, shining ether came forth. From shining ether, breath came forth. From breath, fire came forth. From fire, the waters came forth. From the waters, earth came forth. Read more at location 1164
THEIR SUBSTANTIAL PARTS
Now, among these five natures: From the substantial part of shining ether, the power of hearing came forth. From the substantial part of breath, the power of touch came forth. From the substantial part of fire, the power of seeing came forth. From the substantial part of the waters, the power of taste came forth. From the substantial part of earth, the power of smelling came forth. From the united substantial parts of these five natures, the inner powers--mind, soul, self-assertion, imagination--came forth. Read more at location 1167
THEIR FORCEFUL PARTS
THEIR SPATIAL PARTS
THE LIFE AND THE LORD
**** There is an image of the Eternal, which attributes itself to the vestures, and is called the Life. And this Life, through the power of Nature, regards the Lord as separate from itself. When wearing the disguise of Unwisdom, the Self is called the Life. When wearing the disguise of Glamor, the Self is called the Lord. Thus, through the difference of their disguises, there is an appearance of difference between the Life and the Lord. Read more at location 1184
how can the idea of unity between the Self-assertive, little-knowing Life, and the selfless, all-knowing Lord, be accepted, according to the famous words, that thou art; since the genius of these two, the Life and the Lord, is so opposite? This is not really so; for 'Life attributing itself to the physical and emotional vestures' is only the verbal meaning of thou; while the real meaning of thou is (pure Consciousness, bare of all disguises, in dreamless life.' And so 'the Lord full of omniscience and power' is but the verbal meaning of that; while the real meaning of that is 'pure Consciousness stripped of disguises.' Read more at location 1188
THE FREE-IN-LIFE
THE THREE MODES OF DEEDS
How many modes of these 'deeds' are there? If counted as 'deeds to come,' 'deeds accumulated,' and 'deeds entered on,' there are three modes. Read more at location 1199
The deeds that give joy and sorrow here in the world, in this vesture, are 'deeds entered on.' Through experiencing them they reach cessation; for the using-up of deeds entered on comes through experiencing them. And 'deeds accumulated' reach cessation through wisdom, the very self of certainty that 'I am the Eternal.' 'Deeds to come' also reach cessation through wisdom. For, as water is not bound to the lotus-leaf, so 'deeds to come' are not bound to the wise. Read more at location 1202
THE END
As the sacred books say: The Knower of the Self crosses over sorrow. Read more at location 1209
04. Śankara's Catechism
EXPLANATORY BY CHARLES JOHNSTON
05. The Essence Of The Teaching
SEER AND SEEN
**** THE form is seen, the eye is seer; the mind is both seen and seer. The changing moods of mind are seen, but the witnessing Self, the seer, is never seen. Read more at location 1248
The conscious Self, remaining one, shines on all the moods of mind: on desire, determination, doubt, faith, unfaith, firmness and the lack of it, shame, insight, fear, and such as these. This conscious Self rises not, nor has its setting, Read more at location 1252
THE PERSONAL IDEA
THE POWERS OF GLAMOR
For the world-glamor has two powers--extension and limitation, or enveloping. The power of extension brings into manifestation the whole world, from the personal form to the universal cosmos. This manifesting is an attributing of name and form to the Reality--which is Being, Consciousness, Bliss, the Eternal; it is like foam on the water. The inner division between the seer and the seen, and the outer division between the Eternal and the world, are concealed by the other power, limitation; and this also is the cause of the cycle of birth and death. Read more at location 1265
SIX STEPS OF SOUL VISION
Therefore setting aside this division through name and form, and concentrating himself on Being, Consciousness, Bliss, which are undivided, let him follow after soul-vision perpetually, first inwardly in the heart, and then in outward things also. Read more at location 1277
When the false conceit, that the body is the Self, falls away; when the Self supreme is known; then, whithersoever the mind is directed, there will the powers of soul-vision arise. Read more at location 1288
THE THREE SELVES
The individual self appears in three degrees: as a limitation of the Self; as a ray of the conscious Self; and, thirdly, as the self imagined in dreams. The first alone is real. Read more at location 1291
The imaginary self believes its imaginary world to be real; but the habitual self knows that world to be only mythical, as also is the imaginary self. The habitual self looks on its habitual world as real, but the real Self knows that the habitual world is only mythical, as also is the habitual self. The real Self knows its real oneness with the Eternal it sees nothing but the Eternal, yet sees that what seemed the unreal is also the Self. Read more at location 1303
FREEDOM AND FINAL PEACE
When the imaginary self melts away, its Being, Consciousness, Bliss sink back into the habitual self; and, when the habitual self comes to rest, they return to the Self supreme, the witness of all. Read more at location 1310
06. The Teachings Of Śankara
If the personality is a picture in the field of consciousness, it cannot be consciousness itself; cannot be our real self; but must necessarily be unreal and transient. We are the ray of consciousness, and not the image of the body which it lights up, Read more at location 1322
Causality, Time, and Space. For Kant has shown, with admirable cogency and lucidity, that these so solid-seeming realities are not real at all, but were forms of our thought; mere figments of our intellects. What we call manifestation, Schopenhauer calls representation; and he has very fully developed the idea of the Universe as the resultant of the universal Will, manifested through these three forms of representation--Causality, Time, and Space. Now it is quite clear that he calls Universal Will what Śankara, following the Upanishads, calls the Eternal; and that the forms of representation of Schopenhauer's system, correspond to the World-glamor, or Mâyâ, of Indian thought. Read more at location 1330
(Note: Akin to Jesus) Schopenhauer taught that our salvation lies in denying the personal and selfish will-toward-life, within ourselves, and allowing the Universal Will to supersede it;--the very teaching which lies at the heart of Indian thought: the supersession of the individual self by the Self universal, the Self of all beings. Read more at location 1337
all our misery and futility come from this very source, the personal idea--the vanity and selfishness of our own personalities, coming into strife with the equally vain and selfish personalities of others. Read more at location 1341
07. The Song Of The Self
Nor mother, father, nor the gods and worlds, Nor Scriptures, offerings, shrines are there, they say, In dreamlessness abandoned by the lonely Self; That, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. Read more at location 1360
Nor upward, downward, nor within, without; Nor midward, backward, That, nor east nor west; All-present everywhere in partless unity, That, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. Read more at location 1363
Appendix: A Symposium On The Life Of Śankarâchârya
Have you ever heard of the portents that attended Śankara's birth? It is said that the whole celestial host gave forth paeans of gladness. Read more at location 1376
It is said that in his first year he acquired the Sanskrit alphabet and his own language. At the age of two he learned to read. At three he studied the Purânas and understood many portions of them by intuition. And in his seventh year, having attained all that his preceptor could teach him, he returned home. Nor was he lacking in occult powers at an early age. Read more at location 1390
There was living at this time in a cave in the hillside near the Nerbudda, River a sage, Govind Yati by name. Years ago Vyâsa had appeared to him telling of the coming of a youth who would demonstrate the most miraculous powers. And so it came to pass. When Śankara left his mother he traveled for many days through forests, over hills, by towns and across rivers, led by an irresistible force, he knew not what. After a time he found himself at the opening of the cave in the hillside where dwelt the sage Govind Yati. Straightway he became the pupil of the wise man and was taught the four great truths of Brahma, namely: Knowledge is Brahma, the soul is Brahma, Thou art That, and I am Brahma. Read more at location 1403
one day as Govind Yati was immersed in contemplation a furious tempest arose. Violent thunder shook the heavens, the ethereal vault was riven with tongues of lightning; rain deluged the earth, and Śankara, without awaking his master, quelled the storm, as quietly as a child is soothed by the sound of sweet music. And when the sage returned to consciousness and learned of what had befallen, he was filled with great joy and said: "Thus has the prophecy of Vyâsa been fulfilled." Then the sage blessed Śankara, and knowing that the youth's sojourn with him had come to an end, bestowed his benediction upon him and bade him proceed to the holy city of Benares that he might there receive the blessing of the Deity. "Go," said he, "on thy glorious work, then enter, and begin to save mankind! Read more at location 1407
when he was but twelve years of age that he made his dwelling upon the banks of the Ganges and there wrote the great works that men who seek wisdom have studied ever since: his Commentaries on the Sûtras, the Upanishads, and on the Bhagavad-Gîtâ. In later years when Padmapada came to him bewailing the loss of one of his precious Commentaries which as it chanced had been destroyed by his uncle, Śankara without any perturbation recited the contents of that which had been destroyed in the exact words familiar to all his pupils while Padmapada rewrote them as he spoke. Read more at location 1423
Once he went to the city of Mahishmati where dwelt the sage Mandana Misra. He was led towards the house of this wise man by a number of parrots miraculously endowed with human speech, who, so the story runs, discoursed upon weighty philosophical questions. But when he reached the door of the dwelling he found it fast shut. Undismayed he arose in the air and entered from above, alighting just beside Mandana Misra in his spacious hall. Then began an animated discussion between the astonished host and his unexpected guest. Read more at location 1429
they called on the wife of Mandana Misra to act as umpire between them; but she, busy housewife that she was, deemed it not thrifty to let the hours pass attending to the discourse of word-spinners, so with ready wit she brought two garlands of fresh flowers saying: "Wear these as you talk, and he whose garland does not wither shall be deemed victor." Read more at location 1434
And the wife--she we learn was none other than Sarasvatî in corporeal form. Nor would Śankarâchârya be content until he had held debate with her. Many were the questions put to him by his fair adversary, but always was he to the fore with a ready answer. Then Sarasvatî, for so we may now call her, turned into a path of thought to which Śankara was an utter stranger. She asked him a question on the science of love! For the first time no answer was forthcoming, yet even such a question must be solved by the sage. So he left Mandana Misra's city in search of an answer. Read more at location 1438
a certain king named Amaraka lay dying here at the foot of a tree surrounded by many friends mourning his departure. As the soul of the dying man took flight an unusual thing happened. Śankara left his own body, entrusting it to the care of his disciples. He entered that of the dead king, and the monarch's followers, seeing their chief rise once again with the light of life in his eyes, were overjoyed beyond words, and went out of the forest of death back to the throne of royalty. There king Śankara, standing as it were in the shoes of Amaraka, and indeed Amaraka himself as far as the eye could discern, learned all that pertained to the science and art of love, Read more at location 1443
Śankarâchârya gratefully dismissed the singers and released himself from the corporeal chains that bound him. His own body he found already upon the funeral pyre surrounded by angry flames that seemed to reach to the very heavens. But it remained untouched by their destructive power, and entering it, Śankara, shining with the illumination which streamed from his own being, descended from the pyre and rejoined his devoted pupils, and together they made their way to the house of Mandana Misra, who became a disciple of the young sage after hearing the last question of Sarasvatî answered with keen wit and wisdom. Read more at location 1457
Until his thirty-second year this Sage of the East journeyed, carrying from land to land the blessing of his divine philosophy. Then his term of life was at an end, and into those heavenly realms where in joy the gods awaited him he disappeared in this wise: he absorbed his gross body into the subtil one and became existent; then destroying the subtil one into the body which is the cause of the world, he became pure intelligence; Read more at location 1473