This is the twentieth, the last chapter of the book „Viveka – the Voice of Inner Guru.“
The whole book will be tokenized as NFTs on Mirror and, as such, published in 20 articles (20 chapters of the book: The Illusion; India, oh India!; The Accurate description of the Reality; The Crown Jewel; Dead Guru; Living student; Who you?; Leaving the room; The Weakness of the Mind; The Archimedean Point; Three Powers of Maya; Viveka - the Sword of Truth; The Cave of the Mind; Language Can Save Us; Searching for Lakshana; Nine Golden Rules of Viveka; Purification Exercises; What to do with all this?; Dealing with Fear; Ekam Evadvityam: Living without a Center).
Chapter Twenty: Ekam evadvityam: Living without a Center
mṛtkāryaṃ sakalaṃ ghaṭādi satataṃ mṛnmātramevāhitaṃ tadvatsajjanitaṃ sadātmakamidaṃ sanmātramevākhilam |
yasmānnāsti sataḥ paraṃ kimapi tatsatyaṃ sa ātmā svayaṃ tasmāttattvamasi praśāntamamalaṃ brahmādvayaṃ yatparam ||Whatever is made of clay, like a jar or a cup, is only and always entirely nothing but clay. Similarly, this entire universe produced from the Absolute is Absolute and nothing but That. There is nothing else, anywhere, anytime, but consciousness; that is the only self-evident truth. Therefore, thou art that, pure, peaceful, supreme consciousness, the One without a second.
Vicekachudamani 251
Ekam evadvityam – the one without a second – that's another way to say that consciousness is the only reality. There can not be anything else but consciousness. Even the application of rudimentary viveka skills results in such a conclusion. How very strange! One and no other. That expression, true as it is, is so non-intuitive and non-perceptual. The reality we live in is the reality of many, not the reality of one. It is hard to imagine how it is even possible to live a life of oneness. The liberated person, the enlightened one, a sage, whatever we call him, does he perceive differences? If not, how can he, or she, continue to live among us? If he is thirsty, would he not take a glass of water? If yes, how and why? It's all consciousness, why is there any need to continue with the show of multiple masks slipped on the face of the one?
Well, you may find the answer to the question „why“ in chapter 13, „The Cave of the Mind“. It is not the answer which implies some purpose and intention. It explains the mechanics of creation sprouting from the self-referral faculty of consciousness being aware of itself. Consciousness will always create a multitude of reflections. On that level, Maya is the „divine“, unborn tool for carrying out all that is necessary not only to keep creation going but to make it always new and interesting. That doesn't stop just because one ahamkar is gone, and the one localized point of consciousness now knows that it is no different from every other point around her.
But the question „how“ is more interesting. How does life continue after liberation? Is it any different than before? Do enlightened people see and feel things that others don't? Do they have any special abilities? Can they fly or visit other planets? Or, are they turning into a passive bag of meat, waiting for a body to die out, so their soul can be free from that ultimate burden, too?
Okay, okay, I understand the curiosity. Whenever I come in contact with a live audience, or whenever people have a chance to ask me something about enlightenment, the majority of questions are about what happens after. Unfortunately, it seems that the answers are never entirely satisfying. The reason lies in the fact that the reality from which questions are asked is not the reality of enlightenment. If you ask a question from a dream, it is almost impossible to answer it from the waking state and make sense to the dreamer.
So, the only yes answer is about living in a different reality. The reality of the liberated one is the true reality. The realities of all the rest are illusionary. On all other questions, the answers are yes and no. Can be. Maybe. Sometimes.
If you hoped that I would be more specific, try Vivekachudamani. You'll see that we agree on the description of how the liberated one is living his life.
digambaro vāpi ca sāmbaro vā
tvagambaro vāpi cidambarasthaḥ |
unmattavadvāpi ca bālavadvā
piśācavadvāpi caratyavanyām ||kāmānniṣkāmarūpī saṃścaratyekacāro muniḥ |
svātmanaiva sadā tuṣṭaḥ svayaṃ sarvātmanā sthitaḥ ||kvacinmūḍho vidvān kvacidapi mahārājavibhavaḥ
kvacidbhrāntaḥ saumyaḥ kvacidajagarācārakalitaḥ |
kvacitpātrībhūtaḥ kvacidavamataḥ kvāpyaviditaḥ
caratyevaṃ prājñaḥ satataparamānandasukhitaḥ ||Established in the ethereal space of consciousness, he wanders in the world, sometimes like a madman, sometimes like a child. He may look like a ghost; he might be even drunk, wearing his clothes, or go around naked.
He walks alone, the embodiment of desireless desire, but still enjoys everything, remaining eternally satisfied with the Self that is present in all.
Sometimes, he is a fool. Sometimes, a sage. He might be a king with royal splendor. Sometimes, he wanders around and sometimes is calm and silent, immovable like a python. Sometimes he is respected, sometimes insulted, and sometimes unknown to anyone – such is a life of a liberated one, ever enjoying the supreme bliss.
So, now you know. Apart from bliss, which is everpresent, anything else is a possibility. There are no rules, and there is no fixed way to live your life after the illusion is gone. It can be literary anything. There is no way to recognize an enlightened one by their words, actions, or behavior. Forget the pictures of sages on the mountain, holy men teaching the scriptures, or ascetics sitting under the tree. Forget any images you have or might have about life after. All are wrong, and all can be right.
The reason why it is so, I explained in detail in my book „The Elimination of Karma Factor“. (If ekam evadvityam - the one with no second - is the correct description of reality, then there can be no differential quality for consciousness, nor the need for one. All other ideas - things - in consciousness can be compared and differentiated between each other so that lakshana for any of them can be found. However, if the consciousness is one and there is no other, the comparison is impossible. Thus the freedom as lakshana for consciousness is conditional. It is not real lakshana, but an essential quality.) The essential and conditional* differential quality (lakshana) of consciousness is freedom. Freedom is unpredictable; it operates outside the patterns. Any attempt to describe what would a liberated one do next is a shot in the blank.
Although most people will swear they want to be free, a full understanding of freedom will reveal a different story: people want to be safe and have a firm assurance that their life will go as planned. It's not the freedom they want; it's safety. After they are safe, they want their desires to be fulfilled, and they don't care if those desires are the direct consequence of their mental bondage (loops of karma).
Well, liberation, enlightenment, or moksha means freedom. No more, no less. Unpredictable, unconditional, never-to-know-in-advance freedom. That's why Vivekachudamany speaks about a madman and a sage, about royalty and a drunkard, a respected one and the one insulted, a celebrity, or a complete unknown.
And to add to that, don't think you are the one who will choose. The choice will be made, but not by the forgetful ahamakar, you, who believes he is „the other“, something different and separate from wholeness. Ekam evadvityam, remember? The separation is not true, nor will it ever be. So, why does it matter who will choose? The final answer is: consciousness will choose - the one that is.
Since the reality of oneness is contra-intuitive (we experience differences), the more modern and picturesque explanation is decentralized reality. The consciousness, the one that is, has no center. There is no central authority controlling the periphery of it. The creation is a matter of reflection. All our experiences, including the experience of a separated I-ness, are just reflections of the same consciousness. Forgetting that reality due to pragya apharada, a mistake of the mind is why the illusion of centralization appears. That illusion is a reality for so many people. It's a reality of non-enlightenment, a reality of bondage.
How do you feel that in your life? The experience of reality for you is centralized. Everything revolves around you. You are in the center of the universe. You can not feel experiences that are not here at the point of your localization. You can not think thoughts that are not a part of your mind, again here, at the point of localization. You eat an apple, and you are experiencing eating in a centralized way. YOU are eating an apple. The image of a sunny beach came to your mind. You feel it as centralized because it is your thought. It came to you, created by your mind (although you can be sure about it).
When there is no center, the same event, the same action, is experienced in a decentralized way. The apple is here; your teeth are here; the eating is here; the taste is here. All ingredients of the apple are here. What is missing is the constant gravity of a center, a feeling of I-ness. That feeling is created in the mind, and when the mind corrects the mistake, decentralized reality shines forth. All the creation is still here, including the reference point of reflection – atman – who erroneously became I-ness – ahamkar. But ahamkar is now gone, and all is well again. Everything is different, but also the same as before.
To help you cope with possible paradoxes created in your mind while reading about life after liberation, I'll give you some hints. The detailed descriptions are of no worth, and if you try to build a fixed idea about how it is to be enlightened, such descriptions can be even harmful. But, curiosity is understandable. That's why I'll give you an overview of life without a center. Take it lightly. Use that as clarification, not as an accurate description. It is a parting gift for you in the last chapter of this book.
***
Any attempt to describe how it is to live without a center will be influenced by the fact that it is made for those who live in a centralized reality. However, that is the only possible description because those who are liberated do not need it – they already enjoy decentralized living.
So far, we have established that whatever it is, it's not bad. It may be frightening due to a habit of usurpation of reality by I-ness. However, once the initial fear of losing the ground is gone, the prospect is much brighter. Ananda, punya, and prema are faithful companions of liberation.
Let's see what else you might expect after the big event.
Enlightened hangover
First, let me correct the previous sentence. Enlightenment is not an event. It is not a big bang announced by the trumpets for heaven. It is a gradual process. It will take time and come to you like slow-moving sunset - or dawn. Actually, it will be so slow that you'll probably need a year or two to adjust to the new situation. You may call that an „enlightened hangover“. It feels that way because it's a confusing time when the new reality is not yet established, and the old one is not yet gone.
As far as I can tell from the experience of following a few viveka students and from my own experience, it is a time of status quo. Faced with decisions or a change in a direction, a person with such a hangover usually does nothing, leaving things as they are or floating on the winds of change like a leaf.
The 550th verse of Vivekachudamany comes to mind:
strotasā nīyate dāru yathā nimnonnatasthalam |daivena nīyate deho yathākālopabhuktiṣu ||
Just as a piece of wood is tossed by the current to high or low ground, so is his body carried around by the momentum of its past actions and their fruits.
Later, I’ll say a couple of words about karma after enlightenment. Here I want to emphasize that during an initial period, a liberated one does very little if anything but follows the previously designated path. So, no fear of sudden change or “crazy” unexpected decisions about leaving your husband, abandoning your children, selling your house, and going on a trip to Alaska.
The old saying, “Before the enlightenment, you chop wood and carry water; after the enlightenment, you chop wood and carry water”, pertains mainly to this phase of post-enlightenment living. Most probably, your life will stay the same.
However, that's not the case with your inner experiences. You might be confused for a while, but with time everything should clear up, and you'll soon forget the time before. It will disappear from your memory as a dream disappears in the light of a day.
Identity
We said it is gone, right? There is no identity as a separate being. But how is it possible to function without it? It is, but it is a little bit awkward. You'll learn how to do it during the enlightened hangover.
Oh, let me correct myself; you'll not learn anything. You are gone, but the localization is not. Consciousness still reflects itself in one point – atman – and that point reflects everything else in itself. The I-ness is gone, but the localized consciousness still has to communicate and interact with the other localized points and the Wholeness. In the beginning, while talking about itself, localized consciousness may develop a tendency to refer to parts of the localization. „This body is thirsty, “; or „There is a desire in this mind to go walking.“ The void left by the disappearance of the I-ness may even result in thinking and talking about the assembly of different functions in terms of a name. „Adrian is not in the mood to talk right now“, or „Adrian is very joyful this morning“.
The avoidance of the pronoun „I“, is not needed because the reality will not change if we say it or not. The impression of regression of speech in the age below three can confuse the environment, so „I“ as a denominator for this localized consciousness serves well as a means of communication.
You'll get used to that with time. There is no identification anymore, but the expression „I“, empty as it is, bridges the vast gap between the liberated one and the rest who are still struggling in the hands of Maya.
Functional reconstruction
Now, this is something interesting. If there is no identity, the question is, why would consciousness, now free from any bondage, use the specific characteristics of the body, mind, and personality belonging to the previous life of a liberated man? The reason is inertia and a considerable amount of complication required by re-creating another body, mind, or personality. There is nothing wrong with a body, mind, character traits, or anything that makes us human. The problem was located in mind, corrected with viveka, and everything else is alright.
So, whenever a need for action presents itself, the process of functional reconstruction of the previous personality with all its abilities, memories, likes, and dislikes, will commence. If there is no need to write a book, there is no need for Adrian, the writer. If there is no need for sailing, there is no need for Adrian, the windsurfer. The need for love creates Adrian, the lover. And the need to express motherly affection creates Adrian, the child.
When the need for any characteristic of Adrian ceases to present itself for some time, Adrian will cease to exist.
The question is, why not Adrian, the handyman? Or, Adrian, the lion tamer? Just for you to know, Adrian was never at home with a screwdriver or a hammer, and as for lions – I have no idea if they would like me, but until now, I didn't feel any attraction to them whatsoever. Anyway, is it possible that a functional reconstruction of personality traits, abilities, knowledge, and even memories in this localized point of consciousness results in re-creating Catharine, and not Adrian, if the need arises?
The answer might surprise you, or maybe not, but it is - yes! Functional reconstruction of the localized point of consciousness can result in the re-creation of anyone. However, usually, it will not. There are no restrictions in consciousness, but certain inertia is nevertheless present. In practice, that inertia is inversely proportional to the number of years the physical body will live after enlightenment.
In the beginning years, the pattern will always be the same. What was Adrian before, it will now pop up again as - Adrian. There will be little or no trace of Catherine, John, or Ranveer. With time, however, Adrian could gradually fade away, and in a particular situation, anyone can come out and function as a localized expression of consciousness.
If life presents a need, a liberated one can serve as any tool. But, the possibility of being anyone doesn't mean it will inevitably happen.
Thoughts
Yes, yes, the liberated one experiences mental activity. However, it would be a mistake to say that thoughts are theirs. They appear in the mind of a localized consciousness, but there is no more I-ness who would say, „Those thoughts are mine, I am thinking them“. The I-ness was never the source of thoughts, but it erroneously claimed that it was their owner. With I-ness gone, the reality is that a thought is created in consciousness and then carried out by a specific mind. So, the mind is more like a container, a channel, or even an antenna for thoughts. Adrian's mind will catch some of them, and Ranveer's some other. Since Adrian and Ranveer are only names, the difference is in function, not essence. Thoughts are thoughts; they do not have an owner.
In practice, that can result in a certain witnessing quality of a mental experience. It's like watching what is happening in your mind, expecting what will happen next. It can be quite exciting and sometimes surprising not to know what would be the next thought – in what direction your mind will go. Remember, there are no limitations anymore; the patterns of the mind caused by wrongful interpretation of reality are gone. That means thoughts are flowing freely, never following the same path twice.
Of course, such a situation opens the door for exceptional creativity and original expressions. Free-flowing thoughts can initiate the fourth wave of awakened creation I wrote about in previous chapters. But, again, that is not to be expected. It might happen, or it might not. Freedom is unpredictable.
Obviously, the liberated one experiences mental activity. The amount and the quality of thoughts are of no importance. But, no matter how many or how smart or dumb they are, they are never a burden. Sometimes, mental activity is abundant. Sometimes, for long hours, the mind does not catch any thought. Irrelevant.
And while we are at thoughts, you might ask, do the liberated one meditate – in the sense of achieving a settled state of mind, yoga, consciousness without turmoil? If you wondered if the liberated one walks, talks, or sleeps, I would say yes with certainty. But, meditation is not a preferred activity for everyone, although everyone could benefit from it. The same could be said about physical exercises. I am not sure that every enlightened human would turn out to be an athlete, but meditation is surely different. I think the probability of being drawn to such activity after enlightenment is high.
Emotions
Oh, yes! Feelings. They are here, no doubt. Liberation does not turn off emotions. That is valid for all of them, not only for some of them. Moksha will not make you colder and insusceptible to passion. It will also not make you immune to negative feelings like fear or hatred. They will come, just as they were coming before. However, three things will change regarding emotions.
First, as with thoughts, the same witnessing quality will be present. Previously, every emotion was yours. It was attached to an owner, I-ness, who took every one of them personally. The personal element is now gone. An emotion is an emotion. Its presence is acknowledged and experienced, but there is no attachment to it. Also, there is no particular preference as to which one is welcomed and which is not. Don't forget, in the background of all emotions is always ananda, bliss. With bliss experienced 24/7, emotions are like waves on the ocean's surface.
Second, derivate emotions, the ones initiated by interpretation, are gone. In the human condition, before liberation, there are some patterns or series of emotions triggered by specific experiences. For example, seeing a snake causes fear, panic, or repulsion. Liberated one can feel joy with one snake and sadness with another. In the human condition, emotions follow one another. For example, a feeling of sorrow due to loss can be accompanied by a sense of insecurity, inadequacy, or even guilt. The liberated one would feel such after tasting emotions very rarely. Usually, the feelings will be pure and clear, and thus much more enjoyable and visibly stronger than before.
And the third distinctive feature of enlightened emotions is that they transcend the localization of consciousness. When you leave the old reality behind you, you'll experience a global empathy.
Global empathy
From what I wrote about emotions, it should be clear that suffering and pain are not excluded from the arsenal of enlightened experiences. The personal attachment to feelings is not present, which can be difficult to grasp before it happens. We consider emotions deeply personal, and we often identify with them more strongly than with abstract ideas.
In moksha, emotions fly freely. They are not attached to the localized point that we previously called „me“, nor to the other localized points around (other persons). Note, however, that non-attachment is not an obstacle to prema experience – a directed flow of love.
Since consciousness is one, the suffering caused by illusory separation is felt all around. Don't be surprised if you would start to feel the problems of the world as they are your own. Sometimes, it can be joyful, but considering the present situation of the collective human consciousness, it usually isn't.
The reaction to the pain that was never before yours, and now you feel it as close and concrete as a toothache, can not be predicted. Some liberated will try to shoot down the outer world, and with that other creatures (yes, not only people, all living beings), and some will try to help them.
Relationships
That's the tricky one. How to be in a relationship with someone not attached to emotions? Are such people capable of any relationship? The answer is, fortunately, yes. The relationship of a liberated one can be identical to the one in bondage. With an emphasis on can be. That means it can be entirely different. The standard obligations of a relationship might be respected, but they can be broken equally often. Freedom in thinking and feeling, non-attachment to emotions, and a capability to feel more, may lead to an entirely new relationship paradigm.
From where I stand, the love relationships between people in the human condition are children's play. That kind of relationship can hardly be called a drama, although it causes a considerable amount of trouble to everyone involved. Lack of honesty, too much jealousy, incapability of real sharing, possessiveness, and all kinds of selfish games created by vulnerable I-ness. All this is more bondage and burden than a relationship. The word „love“ should not be mentioned in that context. So, yes, you can expect some changes because that area of life is under the most potent influence of Maya.
A piece of honest and practical advice: if you are in a relationship with someone aspiring for enlightenment, brace yourself for changes. They might not come, but better be prepared. And if you are an aspirant like that, be fair and warn the people affected in advance.
Physical body
Strange things will happen with the physical body. At first, during the hangover, it may react with confusion. It is used to the feeling that there is a pilot in the cockpit, the one who makes decisions. But that one is gone, and the body is on its own. You may expect ups and downs in physical condition. Later on, the body will stabilize, but do not expect perfect health. When the time comes, the body will die from something. If you develop a specific skill, you may die consciously, under the influence of punya (indicated activity).
In the meantime, the physical body will have a mind of its own. It will rarely be the subject of common illnesses but can develop some unusual ones. It will not react to the majority of medicines and standard treatments. The placebo or nocebo will not be effective. All in all, you'll have an exciting time with your body.
If you want to read more about the health issues and their relationship with the liberation, please refer to my book „The Elimination of Karma Factor“, chapter 26, „No Warranty for Perfect Health”.
Decisions
No, the liberated one does not make any decision. That is easy to understand if you consider that the false feeling of separation is gone. Who is there to make a decision? If a decision is made, it is made by consciousness, the one and only.
However, the fact that there is no specific decision-making process is much harder to understand if you look from a pre-enlightened state of being. People have a feeling and a need for free will. They like to choose, or at least to have an illusion of choice. It is hard to give up that idea because experiential reality confirms it: there are always options in front of us, and it seems that we are making the choices. There is much more to be said about free will and its existence. If you are interested, again, I recommend my book „The Elimination of Karma Factor“. A substantial portion of the book covers that topic.
In short: decisions are to be made; the choice exists and will be implemented, but it is not you who will choose. In other words, freedom exists, but your free will is an illusion. How that feels, you'll know when you finish your path towards the truth.
In the meantime, I can tell you that the liberated decision-making process is the most natural thing ever. You don't have to rationalize, gather information, or develop intuition or special skills. You can do that if you feel it is indicated (another decision will initiate gathering information or developing abilities), but the main job is done when you – wait. That's right. You don't have to do anything. Just wait, and when the decision is made, you'll know. It will come as a strong and undisputable inclination toward one option and repulsion toward the other.
Free will? I would say - no. Freedom? Yes, because there were no obstacles, patterns, or conditions for a specific decision. Consciousness is free to make any decision, and a particular point of localization, ex-you, will follow, no matter what.
The one thing you'll surely notice are synchronicities. When consciousness makes a decision, it vibrates with it all over itself. The Universe will let you know when the decision is made. Together with your thoughts and feelings, it will send you contractions of matter, natural events, connection to the lesser beings in awareness (animals), and other signs. You'll not use synchronicity just as a tool or help; it will become your primary navigation through life. There is no difference between out there and in there, remember? Your thoughts and the Universe's movement are the same things. While making a decision, the Oneness is moving. And you'll feel that like you now feel the movement of your body.
Plans
Does the liberated one make plans? Does he keep his promises? What if he makes a schedule of activities, and then the freedom of thought carries him away? Is such a person even reliable?
The liberated one is reliable as any other person. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. The reliability is more of an ex-personality trait than a general characteristic of moksha.
The confusion and the question about reliability arise from the fact that we somehow connect freedom with impulsive actions and spontaneity and plans and reliability with future restrictions. Restrictions are not going well with freedom, hence the doubt.
Don't worry. You can rely on the plans and promises of a liberated one, higher force excluded. Freedom is not happening in a moment, nor is it anyhow connected with time. Time is a construct of the mind, and consciousness does not operate within it on the level of freedom. But, it does work within the time on the level of actions!
In practice, it looks like this: the liberated one is faced with a situation of a decision. He waits until the decision is made. Afterward, he follows the decision. Let's say that the decision was to write the book. It can not be done in a moment, nor a day or two. Writing demands months, maybe years. The free decision of consciousness is indisputable and must be carried on. That means persistence, endurance, skill employment, time management, and in all aspects, hard work for a poor liberated one.
Understand? The notion of free will can obstruct the indicated direction of the movement of consciousness. Ahamkar, I-ness, can say: „I won't do that anymore. I changed my mind.“But the liberated one can't until the job is done, until the next decision-making process.
Free will is an illusion, and the illusion is gone. What's left is freedom, and freedom belongs to no one.
Karma
I have to say a couple of words about karma. You already understood that liberation, moksha, is the end of karma. With the karma factor (I-ness) gone, the consequences of actions can cling to no one. The real doer – the one making the decisions – is consciousness, oneness. So, there is no individual karma anymore. All actions made in moksha are without consequences.
However, that does not mean that the past krama is erased. For some time, the wheel of karma will spin, bringing the messages from the past to all koshas, the bodies surrounding the localized point of consciousness or atman. Due to that, the freedom of movement, behavior, and action can be temporarily impaired. Nonetheless, the liberated one is no less free, even if some parts of their life should „work out“ the good or bad seeds of remaining karma.
However, you should know that such „working out“ is usually mild in comparison with how it would be if the moksha were not attained in the meantime.
Behavior
Did you ever hear about the expression „crazy wisdom“? From the standpoint of a „normal“ human being, those liberated may seem to act like madmen. Their actions are sometimes out of context, unmotivated, and unexplainable by usual standards. People can try to understand why they behaved like that, but every explanation is just a projection of an illusionary state of existence. The free flow of thoughts, and especially non-interference with the process of making decisions, can initiate entirely out-of-ordinary actions.
Those „crazy“ actions can be short-term or long-term. They can appear as a burst of sudden energy, but they can also be a permanent characteristic of life without a center. Bear in mind that free decisions are always made and that the crazy wisdom of liberation, if present, will not stand in the way of an action initiated by the wholeness of consciousness.
***
With the center gone, everything changes. The universe you know is gone. The life you lived – disappeared. All will be seemingly the same but so entirely different. At first, you'll not be familiar with the changes. You may even find them confusing. But with time, the new reality will grow into you, and you'll start to like it. You'll find incredible peace and joy in everything you see or do. There will be no gaps, no separation. There will be no other, just one permanent, unbounded, eternal ocean of creative bliss.
Ekam evadvityam – a life without a center. That is the promise of viveka, and fortunately, that is your destiny. I tried to describe it to you, but it is clear: you'll never know until you live it. Don't fall for a description. Go for it. Live it yourself, as soon as you can.
kva gataṃ kena vā nītaṃ kutra līnamidaṃ jagat |
adhunaiva mayā dṛṣṭaṃ nāsti kiṃ mahadadbhutam ||Where has this universe gone? By whom has it been removed? Where has it merged? I saw it just now. Has it ceased to exist? What a great wonder!
Vivekachudamani 483
Literature about Vivekachudamani
(if after all that is written you really must read more)
Books:
Vivekachudamani of Sri Sankaracharya by Swami Madhavananda, The Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Dt. Almora 1921
Shankara's Cres-Jewel of Discrimination (Vivekachudamani) by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Vedanta Press, California, 1947.
„Talks on Sankara's Vivekachoodamani“, Swami Chinmayananda, Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, Mumbai, first edition 1989.; reprint 2009.
Lectures on Adi Shankara's Vivekachudamani, by Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati, Arsha Avinash Foundation, Tatabad, 2016.
The Vivekacudamani of Sankaracarya Bhagavatpada: An Introduction and Translation by John Grimes; Motilal Banarsidass, (April 30, 2004); Amazon Kindle, February 2018
Online source for Sanskrit and Devanagari: https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/vivekachudamani