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Vicharsagar Quotes And Teachings

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In the North Indian Advaitic tradition Sant Nishchaldas’s is a name that commands great respect. Author of the Vicharsagar, Nishchaldas was a profound scholar of Sanskrit language who, by his own admission, had thoroughly studied grammar, Sankhya, Nyaya, the entire literature of Advaita Vedanta, the Vedas, and other complex works of divergent doctrines, and yet opted for a vernacular medium to write Vicharsagar so that those unable to understand Sanskrit may also attain moksha by following this treatise:

The subject matter of Vicharsagar is the identity of the individual self with the Supreme Spirit. Those who contend difference between them are dimwitted and unwise. Realization of the highest felicity, which is one’s true Self, and removal of ignorance, which is the root cause of this universe, are the objectives.

I am that undiluted Infinite Bliss that is eternal,
self-effulgent, and all-pervading substratum of
name and form; which the intellect conceives not
but which conceives the intellect.

Of the nature of an infinite ocean am I and like its
waves are Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh, Surya, Chandra,
Varuna, Yama, Shakti, Kubera, and Ganesh.
The gracious omniscient Ishvara, conditioned by
adjuncts, who becomes the object of meditation of
sages is also reflected as an illusion in me.

Just as a rope appears as a snake when the knowledge
of the former is absent, and the latter disappears
with the knowledge of reality, similarly this
world [of names and forms] disappears when the
realization of ‘I am He’ dawns.

That Rama [without attributes], whom the pious
sages worship without motive in order to attain
enlightenment, is my Self. Whom then may I salute?

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