Vivekachudamani

A major philosophical poem traditionally attributed to Adi Shankara, systematically presenting the discipline of discrimination between the real and unreal at the heart of Advaita practice.

primary. Primary source text — summarized in original words, not quoted at length.
Tradition: hinduism Tradition: vedanta Period: post-gupta-period Theme: philosophy Theme: discrimination Theme: practice Theme: poetry

Vivekachudamani, often rendered "the crest jewel of discrimination," is a major philosophical poem traditionally attributed to Adi Shankara, and it gives this archive's already-established treatment of Advaita a concrete primary text to point readers toward, rather than leaving that philosophical position discussed only at the level of concept and commentary.

Discrimination as the text's central discipline

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Sources & further reading

Related in the archive

Text

The Brahma Sutras

A terse systematization of Upanishadic teaching that became the shared foundational text every major school of Vedanta was required to interpret and defend.

Concept

Advaita

The technical name for non-dualism within Vedanta, asserting that self and ultimate reality are, at the deepest level, not two.

Concept

Atman

A term for the innermost self explored in the Upanishads — its nature, and its relation to ultimate reality, are debated across traditions.

Concept

Brahman

A term for ultimate reality developed in the Upanishads and central to later Vedanta — understood very differently across schools.

Concept

Maya

A term for appearance, illusion, or the world's deceptive surface — central to Vedanta and interpreted very differently across schools.

Person

Adi Shankara

An influential philosopher associated with a non-dualist reading of Vedanta and with extensive commentarial work — with much of his biography known through later tradition.

Tradition

Vedanta

A family of interpretive schools centered on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

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Next → The Atharva Veda A distinct Vedic collection addressing everyday concerns, healing, and practical ritual alongside more elevated material, complicating any picture of the Vedic corpus as uniformly lofty hymnody.