Pancadasi

by Swami Tejomayananda

Pancadasi is the delight of those students of Vedanta who love a lot of logical arguments! In its 1565 stanzas packed in 15 chapters, this text by Swami Vidyaranya covers a very vast ground of the non dual philosophy of the Upanishads. Believed to have been written in the fourteenth century, this is a prakarana grantha, dealing with many categories of Vedantic thought. The Publication in your bands covers only the fifth, tenth and fifteenth chapters of this voluminous work.

Pancadasi is a prakarana grantha, a book of definition for the students to again a better understanding of the import of the Upanishads. It gives precise logic and clears various doubts regarding Vedanta. It is regarded highly amongst the vedantins. Its study is sufficient by itself and can take the seekers to the peaks of knowledge.

It has fifteen chapters and hence is called Pancadasi. It is roughly speaking the first five chapters (viveka prakaranas) talk of the discrimination of the real and the unreal (sat-vidya). The next five (dipa prakaranas) deal with the awareness aspect of Reality (cit-Vidya). The last five (Ananda prakaranas) deal with the Bliss aspect (Ananda-Vidya). However, each chapter is complete in expounding the Truth.