Vivekachudamani 1-15

PROLOGUE 

I bow before Govinda, the objectless object of final success in the highest wisdom, who is supreme bliss and the true teacher.

For beings a human birth is hard to win, then manhood and holiness, then excellence in the path of wise law; hardest of all to win is wisdom. Discernment between Self and not-Self, true judgment, nearness to the Self of the Eternal and Freedom are not gained without a myriad of right acts in a hundred births. 

This triad that is won by the bright one's favor is hard to gain: humanity, aspiration, and rest in the great spirit. 

After gaining at last a human birth, hard to win, then manhood and knowledge of the teaching, if one strives not after Freedom he is a fool. He, suicidal, destroys himself by grasping after the unreal. Who is more self-deluded than he who is careless of his own welfare after gaining a hard-won human birth and manhood, too? 

Let them declare the laws, let them offer to the gods, let them perform all rites, let them love the gods; without knowing the oneness with the Self, Freedom is not won even in a hundred years of the Evolver. "There is no hope of immortality through riches," says the scripture. It is clear from this that rites cannot lead to Freedom. 

Therefore let the wise one strive after Freedom, giving up all longing for sensual self-indulgence; approaching the good, great Teacher, the Higher Self, with soul intent on the object of the teaching. 

Let him by the Self raise the Self, sunk in the ocean of the world, following the path of union through complete recognition of oneness. 

Setting all rites aside, let the wise, learned ones who approach the study of the Self strive for Freedom from the bondage of the world. Rites are to purify the thoughts, but not to gain the reality. 

The real is gained by Wisdom, not by a myriad of rites. When one steadily examines and clearly sees a rope, the fear that it is a serpent is destroyed. 

Knowledge is gained by discernment, by examining, by instruction, but not by bathing, nor gifts, nor a hundred holdings of the breath. 

Success demands first ripeness; questions of time and place are subsidiary. Let the seeker after self-knowledge find the Teacher, the Higher Self, full of kindness and knowledge of the Eternal. 

—all of the passages in this series are taken from the translation of the Vivekachudamani by Charles Johnston (1946). The original romanization has been retained.