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 FOREWORD

Scarcely any introduction is needed for a book that professes to be, as its title—'Crest-jewel of Discrimination'—shows, a masterpiece on Advaita Vedanta, the cardinal tenet of which is: ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापर:—'Brahman alone is real, the universe is unreal and the individual soul is no other than the Universal Soul.' Being an original production of Sankara's genius, the book combines with a searching analysis of our experience an authoritativeness and a depth of sincerity that at once carry conviction into the heart of its readers. The whole book is instinct with the prophetic vision of a Seer, a man of Realisation, and the expression, too, is so lucid and poetical that quite a new life has been breathed into the dry bones of philosophical discussion, and that, too, on the most abstruse subject ever known.

In preparing this edition, which is a reprint in book-form from the Prabuddha