--> Skip to main content


Atmabodha Of Adi Shankaracharya – What Is It About?

Atmabodha is a short philosophical treatise on Advaita Vedanta, believed to have been composed by Adi Shankaracharya. Atmabodha is a metrical work consisting of 68 verses. In this work, he analyzes the nature of the self, and explains how self-knowledge is the means to moksha (liberation from here and now). In Atmabodha, Adi Shankaracharya first lays down the qualifications that an aspirant to moksha must possess. He then states that jnana (knowledge) is the sole means to moksha.

According to tradition, repeated transmigration is bondage and moksha means release from the cycle of births and deaths. Adi Shankaracharya says that the root cause of transmigration is avidya (ignorance). According to non-dualism, avidya is responsible for the perception of multiplicity and karmas (actions) require awareness of multiplicity. Hence karmas presuppose avidya. So, in Atmabodha there is a verse that states – while karmas are not opposed to avidya, jnana, which is awareness of unity, precludes any empirical activity.

The author says that owing to avidya, there is adhyasa (wrong identification) of the self with the body, mind and sense. The understanding that one’s atman (self) is pure, omniscient, and free from bodily and mental limitations, destroys this avidya.

Knowledge of the self is chitta-vritti (a mental modification). Yet it annihilates avidya and then destroys itself. Shankara gives the illustration of the kataka nut, which purifies the water and then eliminates itself by settling down along with the impurities.

Adi Shankaracharya dismisses the world as mithya (illusion). Like a dream, the world is real only as long as it is perceived, and vanishes when one awakens to the true nature of one’s being (atman). In fact, the world is superimposed on one’s real self.

Adi Shankaracharya says that the three states of experience – waking, dream, and dreamless sleep – are experienced by the gross, subtle and causal bodies respectively. The self, also called Turiya (the fourth), is beyond these. Another categorization is that there are five sheaths – physical body, the vital airs, the mind, the intellect, and the blissful state. The self is enclosed by these sheaths, and is a witness of the experiences that these sheaths undergo. Like a lamp, the self reveals itself and also other objects. Being self-luminous, the atman does not need any other agency to illuminate it.

According to Adi Shankaracharya, moksha can be attained by an embodies person. One who has realized the self is a jivan-mukta (liberated while living). Just as butter can be separated by churning, so also, through discrimination one can isolate Brahman, the non-dual truth underlying all names and forms. Brahman will be found to be identical with the pure self. A jivan-mukta has no limitation and sense of possession. For him truth is always manifesting itself, in and through all men and objects.

In almost all the verses of Atmabodha, Adi Shankaracharya has given appropriate and illuminating similes to illustrate his Advaitic concepts. On account of its brevity and clarity, it is a popular work, and has been translated into many languages, including English.