Dakshinamurti and Bhagavan

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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.

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