Vivekachudamani
by Shankara | 1921 | 49,785 words | ISBN-13: 9788175051065
The Vivekachudamani is a collection of poetical couplets authored by Shankara around the eighth century. The philosophical school this compilation attempts to expose is called ‘Advaita Vedanta’, or non-dualism, one of the classical orthodox philosophies of Hinduism. The book teaches Viveka: discrimination between the real and the unreal. Shankara d...
Verse 139
अखण्डनित्याद्वयबोधशक्त्या
स्फुरन्तमात्मानमनन्तवैभवम् ।
समावृणोत्यावृतिशक्तिरेषा
तमोमयी राहुरिवार्कबिम्बम् ॥ १३९ ॥akhaṇḍanityādvayabodhaśaktyā
sphurantamātmānamanantavaibhavam |
samāvṛṇotyāvṛtiśaktireṣā
tamomayī rāhurivārkabimbam || 139 ||139. This veiling power (Avriti), which preponderates in ignorance, covers the Self, whose glories are infinite and which manifests Itself through the power of knowledge, indivisible, eternal and one without a second – as Rāhu does the orb of the sun.
Notes:
[As Ráhu &c.—The reference is to the solar eclipse. In Indian mythology the sun is supposed to be periodically overpowered by a demon named Rahu.]