Vivekachudamani with detailed English translation - New Sringeri Publication

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V Subrahmanian

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Aug 6, 2022, 9:12:23 AM8/6/22
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Released by Sri Sannidhanam during Shankara Jayanti Celebrations at Sringeri.
Author Ex DGP, Sanskrit/Vedanta Scholar Sri Aravind Rao has followed #Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji’s & #Padmasri Pullela Sriramachandrudu's commentary to explain the verses.
The Upanishads became the quintessential texts of core Indian philosophy to which learned scholars go in order to quench their spiritual thirst. Yet a lay reader, even with sincere spiritual yearning encounters a serious limitation in trying to understand these texts. One obstacle in their volume. Another is that the teachings are merely hinted at in some places, while highly developed in others. Although illumined teachers belonging to various schools of philosophy elucidated the message in the Upanishads by writing commentaries on a selected few, others are still not easy to grasp. This seeming incongruity is due in part to the fact that the messages within them were presented to seekers of varying levels of spiritual maturity. To settle this difficulty, great scholars and philosophers developed manuals to help passionate novice seekers of knowledge and truth. Vivekachudamani is one of the foremost texts in this category-From the Foreword by Dr Rajeev Kurapati
Hardbound Book @ a highly reasonable price of Rs.300/- is Available at all Sringeri Mutt Book Stores.

One can call this number to procure this book: Sri Venkatesh, Bangalore, 903 657 2651.

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The Sikh Advaitin

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Aug 10, 2022, 8:22:49 AM8/10/22
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Namaste Ji

Can this book be purchased in England or Outside India?

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putran M

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Aug 10, 2022, 6:07:46 PM8/10/22
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Namaskaram, 

A summary of the text based on Acharya's commentary is given here https://www.shastras.com/articles-and-summary/vivekachudamani-summary/ by Sastri-ji who was a past member of our group (has passed on).

A separate translation https://realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf by Acharya Pranipata Chaitanya (another past member of our group, passed on).

I have this earlier translation of the Acharya's commentary https://www.amazon.com/Sri-Samkaras-VIVEKACUDAMANI-Chandrasekharendra-Bharati/dp/8172764200 (It would be nice if Aravinda Rao-ji comments further on his contribution and how it differs from or complements P. Sankaranarayanan's.)

thollmelukaalkizhu


Aravinda Rao

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Aug 12, 2022, 11:04:58 AM8/12/22
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Namaste Putran ji, 
I too had seen the translation of Sri Shankaranarayanan but did not follow that pattern. My approach was to make the text student-friendly. Hence, I gave the word to word translation of the verse, the purport of the verse and notes in brief. I did not translate the whole commentary of Swamiji, but picked up a few points from it and added my own notes where I thought I was telling a new point. Mahasannidhanam was kind enough to allow it.   
Aravinda Rao

putran M

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Aug 12, 2022, 12:22:36 PM8/12/22
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Namaskaram,
 
A summary of the text based on Acharya's commentary is given here https://www.shastras.com/articles-and-summary/vivekachudamani-summary/ by Sastri-ji who was a past member of our group (has passed on).

A separate translation https://realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf by Acharya Pranipata Chaitanya (another past member of our group, passed on).

I have this earlier translation of the Acharya's commentary https://www.amazon.com/Sri-Samkaras-VIVEKACUDAMANI-Chandrasekharendra-Bharati/dp/8172764200 (It would be nice if Aravinda Rao-ji comments further on his contribution and how it differs from or complements P. Sankaranarayanan's.)


A random google search landed on an old conversation in our list recorded here: https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1285727-vivekachudamani/

Some nostalgia ... not to restart the controversy (or "confusion").

thollmelukaalkizhu

sunil bhattacharjya

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Aug 12, 2022, 8:07:15 PM8/12/22
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Dear Putranji,

There are serious doubt not only on Adi Shankaracharya's authorship of the Viveka Chudamani,  similar doubt is there on the authorship of the great text of the Saundaryalahari. It is believed that one of the later Shankaracharyas found the manuscript of Anandalahari in Kashmir and added to it the Saundaryalahari to complete the text of Saundaryalahari.

My 2 cents,
skb












putran M

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Aug 12, 2022, 8:26:16 PM8/12/22
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Namaskaram Sunil-ji,

Yes, I am aware that Shankara's authorship of this and other prakarana granthas, sthotras, etc. is debated and different advaitins have decided one way or other, mostly based on whether they can or want to reconcile how advaita is presented in these texts vs the prasthana traya. Nirvikalpa samadhi seems to be the main point of contention for Vivekachudamani as shown in the past discussion in our group that I linked. This question of authorship is also often mentioned in the intros of translations.

thollmelukaalkizhu

Sundar Rajan

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Aug 12, 2022, 10:49:49 PM8/12/22
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Namaste Sunil-ji and Putran-ji,

I know I am wading into a Hornet's nest here :-) The problem with Academic scholar's textual analysis and conclusions is that it may vary markedly from a Practioner's (Sadhaka) vantage point. 

Here are couple of the scholarly objections (from introductions to Acharya Chaitanya's book) , compared with examples from  Practioners  and my comments

Caveats: 
  1. This topic needs a lot more digging into than what is presented below. 
  2. I have cited couple of examples only because these  are well known in the public domain. There may be other examples but probably not well known, so no point in citing them.

Academic Scholar

Practioner

Comments

1.       Comans finds the style of the verses of Vivekachudamani to be ― “highly poetic” in contrast to the vigorous style of the verses in UpadeshaSahasri

What did Advanced Practicing Yogis like Paramhansa Yogananda and Swami Vivekanananda do? They both wrote poems.

On What? Samadhi 😊

It is entirely possible for an advanced Sadhaka or a engrossed Yogi to wax eloquent about Samadhi.

 

Therefore Coman’s argument is not water proof  (IMO)

2.       Alston believes that the references to the ‘bliss of the Brahman‘—which occur in nearly a fifth of the verses of Vivekachudamani—are quite sparse in UpadeshaSahasri

Here again, if you refer to the narratives about Paramhansa Yogananda and Yukteswar, there were certain time periods (not all the time) when they talked about the bliss aspect of their Sadhana quite a bit.

It is entirely possible for an advanced Sadhaka to talk about the bliss aspects of their practice.

Is it possible the author of Vivekachudamani wrote it during a prolonged period of Yogic practice? If so, it is entirely possible they would write about the bliss aspects.

Regards

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Bhaskar YR

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Aug 16, 2022, 3:25:32 AM8/16/22
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praNAms Sri Putran prabhuji

Hare Krishna

 

The style of VC closely resembles to one of the geeta work called by “geeta tAtparya bodhini” written by Sri Shankarananda says Sri SSS in his Kannada translation of VC. The unwarranted insistence on the mandatory experience of NS in VC which is conspicuous by its absence in prasthAnatraya bhAshya of bhagavatpAda observes Sri SSS and alongwith this he lists some other reasons as well why it is not from the pen of prasthAnatraya bhAshyakAra.  VC authorship question / doubt not only raised by only Sri SSS but also followers of AVG.  I have listed those differences and shared in Advaita-L when we were talking about it with Sri Vidyashankar Prabhuji but now don’t know where exactly it is 😊

 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!

Bhaskar YR

 

 

From: adva...@googlegroups.com <adva...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of putran M
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2022 9:52 PM
To: adva...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [advaitin] Vivekachudamani with detailed English translation - New Sringeri Publication

 

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Namaskaram,

 

A summary of the text based on Acharya's commentary is given here https://www.shastras.com/articles-and-summary/vivekachudamani-summary/ by Sastri-ji who was a past member of our group (has passed on).

 

A separate translation https://realization.org/down/sankara.vivekachudamani.chaitanya.pdf by Acharya Pranipata Chaitanya (another past member of our group, passed on).

 

I have this earlier translation of the Acharya's commentary https://www.amazon.com/Sri-Samkaras-VIVEKACUDAMANI-Chandrasekharendra-Bharati/dp/8172764200 (It would be nice if Aravinda Rao-ji comments further on his contribution and how it differs from or complements P. Sankaranarayanan's.)

 

 

A random google search landed on an old conversation in our list recorded here: https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/1285727-vivekachudamani/

 

Some nostalgia ... not to restart the controversy (or "confusion").

 

thollmelukaalkizhu

 

 

 

thollmelukaalkizhu

 

 

On Wed, Aug 10, 2022 at 8:22 AM The Sikh Advaitin <jagdish...@gmail.com> wrote:

Namaste Ji

 

Can this book be purchased in England or Outside India?

On Sat, 6 Aug 2022 at 14:12, V Subrahmanian <v.subra...@gmail.com> wrote:

Released by Sri Sannidhanam during Shankara Jayanti Celebrations at Sringeri.

Author Ex DGP, Sanskrit/Vedanta Scholar Sri Aravind Rao has followed #Jagadguru Sri Chandrashekhara Bharati Mahaswamiji’s & #Padmasri Pullela Sriramachandrudu's commentary to explain the verses.

The Upanishads became the quintessential texts of core Indian philosophy to which learned scholars go in order to quench their spiritual thirst. Yet a lay reader, even with sincere spiritual yearning encounters a serious limitation in trying to understand these texts. One obstacle in their volume. Another is that the teachings are merely hinted at in some places, while highly developed in others. Although illumined teachers belonging to various schools of philosophy elucidated the message in the Upanishads by writing commentaries on a selected few, others are still not easy to grasp. This seeming incongruity is due in part to the fact that the messages within them were presented to seekers of varying levels of spiritual maturity. To settle this difficulty, great scholars and philosophers developed manuals to help passionate novice seekers of knowledge and truth. Vivekachudamani is one of the foremost texts in this category-From the Foreword by Dr Rajeev Kurapati

Hardbound Book @ a highly reasonable price of Rs.300/- is Available at all Sringeri Mutt Book Stores.

 

One can call this number to procure this book: Sri Venkatesh, Bangalore, 903 657 2651.

 

 

 

 

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