Guest guest Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 indicates he is in harmony with time and creation because it is vibration which manifests as form. His upper left hand holds a flame, the fire of knowledge which destroys ignorance. The word Dakshinamurti can be divided into two parts: dakshina and murti. The more familiar meaning is that dakshina means south and right and murti means form. In other words, that form which faces south. In Hindu mythology Yama, the god of death faces north, so that when Dakshinamurti faces south, there is no death. He is immortal; he triumphs over death - he is Mrutyunjaya. There is another meaning also based on Sanskrit roots. Dakshina means clever, skilful, right-hand. Daksa meant at one time discernment, judgement, discriminative thought-power. There is a sense of mental capacity derived from the sense of division, or discrimination, viveka. There are several variations on ds which means to hurt but in positive sense it also means competent and able. It is akin to the root dis: competent, fit, careful, attentive. Discrimination is a force and it is where advaita or the enquiry into what is true and what is false, begins. There is a further esoteric meaning, "Dakshinamurti is experienced at the centre on the right side (dakshina) and yet he is formless (amurti) that is, limitless. Dakshinamurti is the very form of awareness (dakshina)... We find this interpretation in the Dakshinamurthi Upanishad (semushee dakshina proktha)." Finally, Alain Danielou relates Dakshinamurti to the five components (kala) of Siva and the manifestation of speech. He says that Dakshinamurti who represents the being-in-knowledge or-intellect (vijnana-maya-murti), is equated with the root of knowledge which streams forth like rays of the sun. The sun is the sum total of knowledge and is at the centre of the solar world. In symbolic orientation, the centre, the point of origin, is called the north. The aim of knowledge is the flow toward the south, that is, creation: thus the Southern Image, Dakshinamurti. This is all very well in an academic sense but to those of us who want to understand the close relationship of Bhagavan to Dakshinamurti we need to turn to Bhagavan for clarification. .......... Unquote ( the passages pertaining to - why do Bhagavan's devotees identify Dakshinamurti with Sri Ramana? - will be continued in the next post ) Source : Mountain Path Vol.43,No.2 ; Editor & Publisher V.S.Ramanan, Sri Ramanasramam P.O, Tiruvannamalai. email: m_path (AT) ramana-maharshi (DOT) org . (Please note that the passage quoted above is only an excerpt and not the full editorial.) Shri ramaNaarpaNamasthu. Jiyo cricket on India cricket Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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