Life, Liberation and Company of the learned is Rare -Adi Shankara

Shlok:
दुर्लभं त्रयमेवैतत् दैवानुग्रहहेतुकम्
मनुष्यत्वं मुमुक्षुत्वं महापुरुषसंश्रयः
- विवेकचूडामणि

Transliteration:
durlabhaM trayamevaitat daivaanugrahahetukam
manuShyatvaM mumukShutvaM mahaapuruShasaMshrayaH
- vivekachUDaamaNi

Meaning:
These 3 are hard to come and come only, with God's grace - human birth, desire for liberation, company of the learned and noble.

Commentary:

1. In this life, one takes so much for granted. What one does not realize is that, just being born as a human being is a rare blessing in itself. Amongst the multitudes of billions of organisms (living beings), only a few are given the opportunity of being born as humans. That by itself, should be considered as our privilege and utilized with utmost respect.

2. Even if one is born as a human, not everyone gets the desire or drive to work towards liberation (moksha). A very few of the few beings are inspired with this desire.

3. Inspite of being inspired to attain moksha, not everyone is lucky enough to get the company and proximity of the learned and enlightened. Those that are blessed with the above 3 are truely fortunate. They should make use of every ounce of it and count their blessings along the way.

The Vivekachudamani (Sanskrit: विवेकचूडामणि) is a famous Sanskrit poem ascribed to Adi Shankara in the eighth century. It expounds the Advaita Vedanta philosophy[2] and is in the form of 580 verses in the Shardula Vikridita metre. The Vivekachudamani describes developing Viveka, the human faculty of discrimination or discernment between real (unchanging, eternal) and unreal (changing, temporal), as the central task in the spiritual life, and calls it the crown jewel among the essentials for Moksha.[3] The titleVivekachudamani translates to Crest Jewel of Discrimination.[4] Through the centuries, theVivekachudamani has been translated into several languages and has been the topic of many commentaries and expositions.

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