For bhakti Ashrama does not matter

[Guest guest]

shivAnandalaharI is one of my favorite works. I became very

familiar with it by listening SrI Balamurali Krishna's rendering

which is indescribable in words. The following verse is from

shivAnandalaharI

 

 

vaTurvaa gehii vaa yatirapi jaTii vaa taditaro

naro vaa yaH kashchidbhavatu bhava kiM tena bhavati |

yadiiyaM hR^itpadmaM yadi bhavadadhiinaM pashupate

tadiiyastvaM shaMbho bhavasi bhavabhaaraM cha vahasi || 11||

 

 

Approximate translation*

 

 

Let one be a brahmachAri (vaTuH vaa) or an householder (gehii

vaa), or a sannyAsi (yatiH api)or a jaTa bearing vAnaprastha

(jaTi vaa), the stage of life (s)he is in, whatever it is, how

does it matter anyway? If one has surrendered one's lotus heart

(hR^id padmam) to you (bhavadadhInam) O Lord of jIva-s

(pashupateH), then O shambu (giver of happiness) you become his

(her) own ( tadiyaH tvam shambo) and carry the burden of his

(hers) samsaara (bhava bhAram cha vahasi).

 

What is spoke of shambu is for shAmbavi also, they are one. Once

we do bhAra samarpaNam to ambaaL then it does not matter where we

are (as in verse guhAyAm gehe vaa) or what ashram we are in (as

in the quoted verse) or even what form we are in (naratvam

verse). All that matters in life is surrendering ourselves to

shiva-shakti. Life is full of ups and downs, and the crocodiles

of rAga and dveSha drag us hither and thither. When confronted by

these miseries, we have only one recourse, that is to turn around

and think anRe taDuttennai aaNDukoNDaay or nanrE varuginum (i

wrote these verse of abhirAmi antAdi earlier) or na jnAyate (of

Ananda sAgara stavaH). Then it upto HER.

 

 

Whenever confronted with worries and frustrations, I think about

these. At least for that moment the burden is lifted and peace

reigns heart. I hope they (shiva-shakti) will teach me to do

sharaNagati in the true sense to me one day. Now I just speak of

it and feel like a hypocrite.

 

--

 

Thinking of shiva-shakti, it seems to me that dual number in

Sanskrit (no other language has it) like shivAbhyAm, was just

created for them. All other languages have only singular and

plural. Only Sanskrit has dual and I believe it was just designed

to speak of shiva-shaki as shivAbhyam, who can not be described

otherwise. Glory to them. AUM shivAbhyAm namaH

 

 

--

There is a wonderful translation of shivAnandalaharI by aNNa

(subrahmaNya aiyar) in Tamil published by RK Math. And he quotes

many beautiful verses from tamil works like dEvAram,

thirumanthiram, etc.

--

 

aDiyEn

 

ambaaL daasan

 

 

* (I write it off my head and have no time to refer to

dictionaries to make it accurate)