Customer Reviews

Vivekacudamani, The Crest Jewel of Discernment

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An essential Advaita Vedanta- book, more than 1000 years old. This book contains besides Raphael's (who is author and Master in the Western Metaphysical Tradition as well as the Vedanta) translation and commentary also the original Shankara-text in Sankrit (transliterated). Shankara presents his teaching as "a very stimulating realization dialogue between an advaitin Master and a" disciple striving for final freedom and realization. (see preface).
It's a book whose vibrations "jump over to" the reader (still today - after more than 1000 years). An ancient book which presents Advaita crystal-clear and timelessly up-to-date. So for instance in the chapter "Meditate on Brahman in the lotus of your heart" with the sutras 254 ff.: "That which is beyond status, beyond religious creed and beyond family; that which is beyond name and form, beyond the qualities, beyond place, beyond time and beyond sensory objects: that is Brahman, and That Thou art, contemplate that within yourself ... That which is not touched by ... hunger, thirst, suffering, ... , decrepitude and death ... cannot be contemplated by the sensory organs; that which the intellect cannot know; ... that is Brahman, That Thou art, contemplate that within yourself."
For me personally, i found a very helpful meditation aid in the following sutra 505, p. 216: "The witness is not touched by the properties of things, it is distinct from them, because it has no modifications and is indifferent, like a lamp that lights a room is not touched by the properties of the room."