Viveka Chudamani (Crest-Jewel of Discrimination) stands as perhaps the most comprehensive practical guide to Advaita realization, comprising 580 verses systematically taking a qualified seeker from initial preparation to final liberation. Though authorship is debated (some modern scholars question attribution to Adi Shankara due to style), the text remains central to Advaita tradition. Sri Ramana Maharshi considered it containing "all the points required for a seeker of liberation." Structured as guru-disciple dialogue, it opens by establishing the four qualifications (sadhana chatushtaya) essential for spiritual pursuit: Viveka (discrimination between eternal and temporal)—the foundational ability to correctly distinguish Brahman from world-appearance; Vairagya (dispassion)—desire to relinquish all transitory enjoyments in this world and the next, arising naturally from viveka; Shatsampat (six virtues)—Shama (mental control), Dama (sensory control), Uparati (withdrawal from distractions), Titiksha (forbearance of opposites like heat-cold without complaint), Shraddha (faith in guru and scriptures), and Samadhana (one-pointed concentration); Mumukshutvam (burning desire for liberation)—the sustained, intense determination "I will attain moksha." The text analyzes bondage: ignorance causing superimposition (adhyasa) of body-attributes onto Self and Self-attributes onto body, identification with three bodies and five sheaths, attachment to sense objects (using vivid animal metaphors: deer dies through sound, elephant through touch, moth through sight, fish through taste, bee through smell—humans enslaved by all five!). Liberation comes through knowledge alone, attained via the threefold method of shravana (hearing teaching from guru), manana (rational reflection removing doubts), and nididhyasana (deep meditation). The text provides self-inquiry methods: systematic negation "neti neti" (not this, not this), analysis of three states (waking, dream, deep sleep, and Turiya), contemplation on mahavakyas. Verses describe the jivanmukta: satisfied with Atman-bliss, free from hatred, established in peace, "shining inwardly like a lamp inside a vase."