Vivekachudamani

Shaivism/Tantra/Nath

New movements

Kashmir Shaivism

Gaudapada

Adi Shankara

Advaita-Yoga

Nath

Kashmir Shaivism

Neo-Vedanta

Inchegeri Sampradaya

Contemporary

Shaivism/Tantra/Nath

Neo-Advaita

Hinduism

Buddhism

Modern Advaita Vedanta

Neo-Vedanta

The Vivekachudamani Sanskrit: विवेकचूडामणि; IAST: is an introductory treatise within a Advaita Vedanta tradition of Hinduism, traditionally attributed to Adi Shankara of the eighth century. it is in the have of a poem in the Shardula Vikridita metre, and for numerous centuries has been celebrated as a teaching manual of Advaita.

Vivekachudamani literally means the 'crest-jewel of discrimination'. The text discusses key concepts as well as the viveka or discrimination or discernment between real unchanging, eternal and unreal changing, temporal, Prakriti and Atman, the oneness of Atman and Brahman, and self-knowledge as the central task of the spiritual life and for Moksha. It expounds the Advaita Vedanta philosophy in the pull in of a self-teaching manual, with numerous verses in the draw of a dialogue between a student and a spiritual teacher.

Through the centuries, the Vivekachudamani has been translated into several languages and has been the topic of many commentaries and expositions.

Commentaries and translations

There are two Sanskrit commentaries on this work. Vyakhya or commentary on the number one 515 verses of this work.

This work has been repeatedly translated into various languages, often accompanied by a commentary in the same language. English translations and commentaries include those by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, Swami Madhavananda, Swami Turiyananda and Swami Chinmayananda. Tamil translations and commentaries include those by Ramana Maharshi. Swami Jyotihswarupananda has translated the Vivekachudamani into Marathi.

A recent scholarly translation of the text was published in 2004 by John Grimes – a professor of Hinduism and Buddhism. His translation has been reviewed by Douglas Berger, who states, "the [Vivekachudmani] translation itself is a testament to Grimes’ surpassing Sanskrit skills and thorough cognition of Vedantic textual exegesis. The unusually lucid present of the Sanskrit slokas is rendered with exactness and eloquent clarity in the English. The accompanying Upanisadic cross-referencing and Sanskrit-English lexicon of key terms will prove themselves enormously helpful to lay readers, students, and scholars."

Hundreds of commentaries in several languages are available on internet in the form of blog articles, videos etc.