Book Review of Vivekachudamani and Aparokshanubhuti: A tribute to Jagadguru Adi Shankaracharya on his birthday today
In my last post in "realizations" blog, i have made a claim that Jagadguru Adi Shankarcharya is an ultimate scientist who walked the planet and the Sringeri Sharada Peetham as #1 learning institute on the planet. I have also substantiated my claims to the best of my abilities. I tried to be crisp in my substantiation. However, that doesn't seem to suffice as per some of my esteemed friends. I very much respect their objection. There are infinite ways to establish a truth. Hence, i was brief. However, i would check with my friends and find out what is their criteria for sufficiency of proof. I gave them what I thought is necessary. BTW, sufficiency of proof would also depend on the IQ of the reader. The more the IQ, the lesser the proof required and vice versa.
Based on the comments that i received from my esteemed friends, there seems to be a necessity to provide the book review of "Vivekachudamani" and "Aparokshanubhuti".
Therefore even though not planned, i intend to provide below the book review of "Vivekachudamani" and "Aparokshanubhuti" for the benefit of my friends.
Vivekachudamani
Also, there are some Telugu textbooks available too. Chandrasekhar Bharati Mahaswamiji's commentary is also available in Kannada and English.
Sincerely,
Jiddu Naga Subrahmanyam
In my last post in "realizations" blog, i have made a claim that Jagadguru Adi Shankarcharya is an ultimate scientist who walked the planet and the Sringeri Sharada Peetham as #1 learning institute on the planet. I have also substantiated my claims to the best of my abilities. I tried to be crisp in my substantiation. However, that doesn't seem to suffice as per some of my esteemed friends. I very much respect their objection. There are infinite ways to establish a truth. Hence, i was brief. However, i would check with my friends and find out what is their criteria for sufficiency of proof. I gave them what I thought is necessary. BTW, sufficiency of proof would also depend on the IQ of the reader. The more the IQ, the lesser the proof required and vice versa.
Based on the comments that i received from my esteemed friends, there seems to be a necessity to provide the book review of "Vivekachudamani" and "Aparokshanubhuti".
Therefore even though not planned, i intend to provide below the book review of "Vivekachudamani" and "Aparokshanubhuti" for the benefit of my friends.
Vivekachudamani
- This book is all about the highest/ultimate Truth. It is the science of sciences.
- The bottomline of the book is Viveka -- ability to discriminate between Truth and Non-Truth. It is all cutter logic.
- I deliberately don't want to say what is the ultimate truth taught by the book. I will leave it for the reader's discretion because every reader of this book may have his own experience of the truth. If i say something, that might color the perception of the reader and also possibly belittle the truth if i don't get it fully right. I don't want to take chances here.
- Before we embark reading the book, we need to earn our qualifications/eligibility by practising Sadhana Chatusthaya (Slokas 17-28). We can give ourselves a time of 3-month or 6-month or an year to practise Sadhana Chatusthaya. If we are not successful on the sadhana chatusthaya, we should go to Bhagavad Gita.
- Vivekachudamani is the short-cut to the ultimate truth. It is somewhat risky unless the reader is selfless and got pure by Sadhana Chatustaya and also has strong logic skills. Really Safe but long-cut is Bhagavad Gita where Krishna explained the ultimate truth in 18 different ways. Based on the individual temperament one can go for former or latter.
- While Vivekachudamani talks about the highest truth, it doesn't give too many practical methods to realize the truth. It covers some though.
- Hence, the great Shankaracharya, authored a book which is dedicated to practical steps to realize the truth. While one can expect more of a theory and less of practicals in Vivekachudamani, one can expect more of practicals and some theory in Aparokshanubhuti.
- If someone says, it is all religion and not science.. This is the book I recommend. It is all practice. It is all science. I call it science of sciences because it covers highest truth and shows the method to realize it.
Also, there are some Telugu textbooks available too. Chandrasekhar Bharati Mahaswamiji's commentary is also available in Kannada and English.
Sincerely,
Jiddu Naga Subrahmanyam
No comments:
Post a Comment