INTRODUCTION BY SRI BHAGAVAN RAMANA MAHARSHI Every being in the world yeaens to be happy & free from the taint of sorrow, & desires to get rid of bodily ailments, ets, which are not of its true nature. Further, everyone cherishes the greatest love for himself, & this love is not possibl in the absence of happiness. In deep sleep, though devoid of everything, one has experience of being happy. Yet, due to the ignorance of the real nature of one’s own being, which is happiness itself, people flounder in the vast ocean of material existence, forsaking the right that leads to happiness, & act under the mistaken belief that the way to be happy consists in obtaining the pleasures of this & the other world. Unfortunately, however, there is no such happiness which has not the taint of sorrow. It is precisely for the purpose of pointing out the straight path to true happiness that Lord Siva, taking on the guise of Sri Shankaracharya, wrote the co- mmentaries on the Triple Canon (Prastbana Traya) of the Vedanta which extol the excellence of this bliss; & that he de- monstrated it by his own example in life. These commentaries, however, are of little use to those ardent seekers who are intent upon realizing the bliss of liberation but have not the scholarship necessary for studying them. It is for such as these that Sri Shankara revealed the essence of the commentaries in this short treatise, The Crown Gem of Discrimination, explaining in detail the points that have to be geasped by those who seek liberation, & thereby direc-ting them to the true & direct path. 1. Because the world is seen, we have to infer a common cause (a Lord) possessing unlimited powers to appear as the diversity. The pictures consisting of names & forms, the seer, the canvas, the light—all these are He Himself. 2. The body is in the form of, & includes, the five sheaths. Is there a world apart from the body? Has anyone without a body seen the world?