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Adi Sankaracharya's
Maneeshaa Panchakam
Translated by S. N. Sastri

Introduction
Inthis work consisting of just five verses Sri Sankara has brought outsuccinctly the essence of Advaita Vedanta. The occasion for thiscomposition may first be narrated. One day Sri Sankara was walkingtowards the temple of Lord Viswanatha in Varanasi along with hisdisciples. It so happened that a sweeper was walking towards him on thesame street. Sri Sankara asked the sweeper to move away from his path.The sweeper then asked him some questions which form the substance oftwo verses which are a prelude to the main work. On hearing thesequestions, Sri Sankara realized that the person before him was noordinary sweeper. Sankara replies to these questions in five verses.These five verses have been collectively given the name‘Maneeshaapanchakam’. The word ‘maneeshaa’, meaning ‘conviction’appears in the last line in all the five verses.

According totradition, the sweeper was none other than Lord Siva Himself in thatform. Sri Sankara himself is considered to be an incarnation of LordSiva. Therefore this work is in essence a dialogue between two forms ofLord Siva, intended to convey to the world the essential teachings ofVedanta. Questions such as whether even Sri Sankara practiseduntouchability in spite of being an enlightened soul have no place inthe light of these facts. Moreover, in all such cases the story byitself is not important. To derive various conclusions about othermatters on the basis of the story would be going off at a tangent. Onefact which emerges is that, once a person has attained Self-knowledge,considerations such as his caste, etc., are totally irrelevant.

The verses are now taken up one by one.

The sweeper’s questions:--
1.O great among the twice-born! What is it that you want to move away bysaying, ”Go, go”? Do you want the body made up of food to move awayfrom another body made up of food? Or do you want consciousness to moveaway from consciousness?

2. Is there any difference betweenthe reflection of the sun in the waters of the Ganga and its reflectionin the water in a ditch in the quarters of the outcastes? Or betweenthe space in a gold pot and in a mud pot? What is this illusion ofdifference in the form, “This is a Brahmana and this is an outcaste” inthe indwelling self which is the ripple-free ocean of bliss and pureconsciousness?

Note: The indwelling self, which is identicalwith the supreme Self whose nature is bliss and pure consciousness, isthe same in all creatures. As the Bhagavadgita says, “The enlightenedsee the same Self in the Brahmana endowed with learning and humility,the cow, the elephant, the dog and the outcaste” (5. 18).

Sri Sankara’s answers:--
1.Ifa person has attained the firm knowledge that he is not an object ofperception, but is that pure consciousness which shines clearly in thestates of waking, dream and deep sleep, and which, as the witness ofthe whole universe, dwells in all bodies from that of the CreatorBrahma to that of the ant, then he is my Guru, irrespective of whetherhe is an outcaste or a Brahmana. This is my conviction.

Note: Inthe waking state the physical body as well as the senses and the mindfunction and experience external objects. In the state of dream thereare no objects and the body and senses do not function, but the mindcreates objects and events and experiences them. In deep sleep even themind does not function. In all these three states consciousness ispresent. In the first two states the presence of consciousness isobvious because of the experience of external objects and the creationsof the mind respectively. It may appear as if in deep sleep there is nosuch experience, but it is the experience of every one that on wakingup he remembers that he slept happily and did not know anything.Remembrance is possible only of what has actually been experiencedpreviously. It therefore follows that consciousness existed during deepsleep also and that it was because of this consciousness that happinessand ignorance were experienced. This consciousness is thus the witnessof all experiences as well as the absence of experiences. Thisconsciousness is the Self that dwells in every living being. Everythingother than this consciousness is an object. The external objects areobjects of experience for the sense organs. The sense organs areobjects for the mind. The mind itself is an object for theconsciousness or Self. Thus the self alone is the subject andeverything else is an object of experience. The person who has realizedthat he is the Self and not the mind or the senses or the physical bodyis an enlightened person. Such a person is the Guru for the wholeworld.

2. “I am Brahman (pure consciousness). It is pureconsciousness that appears as this universe. All this is only somethingconjured up by me because of avidya (nescience) which is composed ofthe three gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas)”. One who has attained thisdefinite realization about Brahman which is bliss itself, eternal,supreme and pure, is my Guru, whether he is an outcaste or a Brahmana.

3.Having come to the definite conclusion, under the instruction of hisGuru, that the entire universe is always perishable, he who, with acalm and pure mind constantly meditates on Brahman, and who has burnthis past and future sins in the fire of knowledge, submits his presentbody to the operation of his praarabdha karma. This is my conviction.
Note.Karma, in the sense of results of actions performed, is divided intothree categories . (1) sanchita karma—the accumulated results ofactions performed in past births, (2) praarabdha karma-- those resultsof past actions which have given rise to the present body and (3)aagaami karma—the results of actions performed in the present birth. Onthe dawn of Self-knowledge the first category is completely destroyedalong with the third category acquired upto the time of attainment ofknowledge. After the dawn of Self-knowledge any action performed doesnot produce any result in the form of merit or demerit. The secondcategory, praarabdha karma, is not destroyed on the attainment ofSelf-knowledge, but has to be exhausted only by being actuallyexperienced. On the exhaustion of this category of karma the body ofthe enlightened person falls and the jivanmukta becomes a videhamukta.This is brought out in the above sloka by the statement that theenlightened person merely submits his body to the operation ofpraarabdha karma.

4. The Self or pure consciousness isexperienced clearly within by animals, men, and gods as ‘I’. It is bythe reflection of this pure consciousness that the mind, senses andbody, which are all insentient, appear to be sentient. External objectsare perceived only because of this consciousness. This Self is,however, concealed by the very mind, senses and body which areillumined by it, just as the sun is concealed by clouds. The yogi who,with a calm mind, always meditates on this Self is my Guru. This is myconviction.

Note: The Self or pure consciousness is whatenlivens the mind, senses, etc., which are insentient, and enables themto function. Clouds owe their origin to the heat of the sun which makesthe water in the oceans evaporate. The clouds become visible onlybecause of the light of the sun behind them. The same clouds hide thesun from our view. Similarly, the body, mind, and senses, which owetheir sentiency to the pure consciousness that is the Self, conceal theSelf from us by making us engage ourselves in worldly pursuits all thetime. The self can be realized only if the senses and mind arewithdrawn from external objects.

5. The Self, which isBrahman, is the eternal ocean of supreme bliss. A minute fraction ofthat bliss is enough to satisfy Indra and other gods. By meditating onthe Self with a perfectly calm mind the sage experiences fulfillment.The person whose mind has become identified with this Self is not amere knower of Brahman, but Brahman itself. Such a person, whoever hemay be, is one whose feet are fit to be worshipped by Indra himself.This is my definite conviction.
,Note. The Upanishads say that thehappiness experienced by all living beings, including the gods, is onlya minute fraction of the supreme, infinite bliss of Brahman(Brihadaranyaka, 4.3.32, Taittiriya, 2.8). Knowing Brahman meansknowing that one is Brahman and not the body-mind complex. He whoattains this knowledge is Brahman itself (Mundaka, 3.2.9).Thus knowingBrahman is the same as remaining as Brahman. It should be noted thatthis is not the attainment of any new state. Every one is in realityBrahman, even when he is in bondage and looks upon himself as a limitedhuman being. Liberation is nothing but the removal of the wrongidentification with the body-mind complex by the realization of hisreal nature as the infinite, eternal Brahman. A rope is mistaken for asnake in dim light, but when it is examined with a light it is foundthat there never was a snake and that there was only a rope all thetime. No one would say that there was a snake previously and that ithad gone away. Similarly, when a person realizes that he is not thebody-mind complex, but Brahman, it follows that he was always Brahmanand that only the wrong notion about himself has been removed andnothing new has emerged. Thus there is no real bondage, but theindividual jiva thinks, wrongly, that he is in bondage, due toignorance of his real nature. When this ignorance is removed as aresult of sravana, manana, and nididhyasana, the person becomes ajivanmukta here itself.

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Manisha Panchakam [Zipped PDF File - 78 KB]

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