Śaṅkara and the Advaita manuals
Ātma Bodha
Sixty-eight verses on the nature of the self, dense with images: the rope and the snake, the lamp in the pot, the reflection in water.
traditional · attributed to Śaṅkara
- When
- traditional
- Behind it
- attributed to Śaṅkara
- Where it sits
- Śaṅkara and the Advaita manuals
Short enough to memorise, deep enough to last decades.
The full-length study of this text is still being written. The summary above is complete, and the originals below are the whole thing rather than a description of it.
The text itself
Complete originals, in free copies wherever one exists.
- Ātma Bodha with translation and notes, Swami Nikhilananda (Self-Knowledge, Ramakrishna Order)
- the sixty-eight verses in Ramaṇa Maharṣi's own rendering
- Self-Knowledge — Śaṅkara’s Ātma Bodha translated with notes by Swami Nikhilananda, from the Ramakrishna–Vivekananda Center of New York, which publishes it In print rather than free: the people who publish it keep the text alive.
Commentaries worth trusting
Read by teachers within the tradition, not summaries of it.
- Ātma Bodha, Chinmaya commentary — Swami Chinmayananda Sixty-eight verses of pure conclusion, each one an image you can hold.
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