Manisha Panchakam (Swami Advayananda)

Manisha Panchakam (Swami Advayananda) – DVD talks in English

Manīṣā-pañcakam or the Pentad on Conviction is a set of five verses composed by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. This introductory treatise on Vedānta is categorised as a Prakaraṇa-grantha. In just five verses, Śrī Śaṅkara elucidates the four Mahāvākyas in most lucid manner, making this text invaluable for any student of Advaita-vedānta.

Ādi Śaṅkarācārya composed the Manīṣā-pañcakam at Varanasi, the ancient sacred city of India. Enroute to the temple after his bath, an outcaste who worked at burial grounds and his four dogs blocked his way. Concerned about being polluted, Sri Śaṅkara commanded him to get out of his way.  The outcaste asked, “What should move from what? Body from body or the Self from Self?” The main text emerges from the two verses that encapsulate this idea.

Overcome by this philosophically rich question, Śrī Śaṅkara’s reply was an exposition of the Vedāntic Truth enshrined in the Mahāvākyas. What emerges is his firm statement of conviction, or manīṣā, that a person with this wisdom of the oneness of the Self, is his Guru – be he a Brāhmaṇa or a cāṇḍāla.

This set of 6 DVDs contains 18 discourses on Manīṣā-pañcakam by Swami Advayananda recorded during the weekly webinar satsaṅgs held at CIF in 2015.