--> Skip to main content


Four Means To The Attainment of Wisdom of Self as per Vedanta


The four means to the attainment of the wisdom of the self as per Vedanta are:

Nitya Anitya Vastu Viveka 

Discrimination between things permanent and transient: ‘Brahman alone is the permanent substance and that all things other than it are transient.’

Iha Amutra Phala Bhoga Viragah

Renunciation of the enjoyment of the fruits of actions in this world and hereafter, such as immortality. ‘And as here on earth, whatever has been acquired by exertion perishes, so perishes whatever is acquired for the next world by sacrifices and other good actions performed on earth.’

Six treasures, Shama Adi Shat Sampattih

The six treasures are:

Shama, the curbing of the mind from all objects except hearing of scriptures, thinking of their meaning and meditating on it.

Dama is the restraining of the external organs of action and knowledge from all objects except hearing, and the like.

Uparati is the restraining of the mind from drifting back to the pursuit of the objects of the senses other than hearing and the like, or it may mean the abandonment of the prescribed works, sannyasa, according to scriptural injunctions.

Titiksha is the endurance of the pairs of opposites, that is, being unruffled by pleasure and pain, arising from heat and cold, respect and contumely, gain and loss, weal and woe, and so on, which are the inevitable associates of the body, by meditating on the pure Self, which is always free from these dual throngs. ‘The bearing of all afflictions without caring to redress them, being free from anxiety or lament on their score, is called titiksha or forbearance.’

Samadhana is the constant concentration of the mind, on hearing and the like, of the scriptural passages and other objects such as modesty, humility, the service of the guru, compiling of the Vedantic books, their preservation, and so on.

Shraddha is the faith in the words of Vedanta as taught by the guru. A spiritual practice without faith does not produce the requisite effect.

Mumukshatvam 

The desire for freedom.

Without discrimination, renunciation is impossible. Without renunciation, the acquisition of the six treasures is impossible. Without the acquisition of the six treasures, desire for liberation does not arise. When an aspirant is equipped with the above-mentioned sadhanas, one cannot but have a strong desire for liberation. Then alone does one become fit to receive the absolute knowledge.

Sourcenotes taken from Prabuddha Bharata January 2018 page 78 and 79.