A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Saundaryalahari (DPDS - 02)

[Guest guest]

Namaste.

Recall: About the organization of the `Digest': THE ENTIRE

EXPOSITION IS BY THE PARAMACHARYA. SO THE FIRST PERSON PRONOUN,

WHEREVER IT OCCURS, IS HIS. The `I' of advaita-vedanta is always

within quotes. ALL THE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF

THE PARAMACHARYA, EXCEPT WHEN ACKNOWLEDGED OTHERWISE. Additional

explanations given by Ra. Ganapathi are so acknowledged.

Parenthetical remarks by him, like `with a smile', `after a small

pause' etc. that all refer to the speaker, the Paramacharya, are

repeated, if at all, as they are in the original, within

parentheses. My own remarks, if any, shall be properly demarcated.

And note that the Paramacharya most often refers to Adi

Sankaracharya as `Our Acharya'.

V. Krishnamurthy

 

A Digest of Paramacharya's Discourses on Soundaryalahari - 2

 

On the other hand what do we observe in our experience? Whether it

is the teaching about jnAna in the Gita, or the Viveka Chudamani of

our Acharya, or the Avadhuta Gita of Sri Dattatreya or the teaching

in the Yoga-vASiShTa, or a song of Tayumanavar – even when we just

read these we feel we are being taken beyond the curtain created by

mAyA to some distant peaceful state of Calm. Just by reading, in

one's spiritually ripe stage, such teachings, there have been

people who have renounced the world and reached the state of Bliss-

in-one-Self !. If these teachings had not been written from that

spiritual apex of Experiential Excellence, how could such things

have ever happened?

Therefore, however much by your intellectual logic, you argue

whether a jnAni can get bhakti, how the jnAni can do any

preaching and so such possibilities cannot exist and so on, these

are certainly happening, by the Will of the Lord which is beyond

the Possible and the Impossible.

It is only the Play of the Lord that the jnAni, who is non-dualistic

internally, appears to do things in the dualistic world. His mind

may have vanished, mAyA might have been transcended by him; but that

does not mean that the outside world of jIvAtmAs has disintegrated.

What do we gather from this? There is a Super-Mind which does all

this and in some mysterious way is compering and directing the

entire universe. And it also means that it is the same Supra-Mind

that is making the minds of men revolve in the illusion of mAyA. It

is that Power which is known in advaita scriptures as saguNa-brahman

or Isvara. In the scriptures devoted to shakti or Shiva , whenever

they call the Actionless nirguNa-brahman as `Shivam' they call

this saguNa-brahman as `shakti', `parA-shakti' or `ambAL'. Just as

that nirguNa-brahman exhibits itself and acts as the saguNa-brahman,

so also, it must be presumed, that the enlightened jnAni also does

his external actions and that again, is the work of the saguNa-

brahman!

What is the path of jnAna? It is the effort through self-enquiry and

meditation for the eradication of the mind and vanquishing of mAyA.

But the other path is to dedicate oneself and all one's thoughts and

actions to that very parA-shakti (who produced this mAyA on us) with

an attitude of devotion. It is like giving the house-key to the

thief himself ! However much the parA-shakti may play with you and

toss you and your mind hither and thither, Her infinite compassion

cannot be negated. Only when we separate and rejoin, we realise the

value of that union. To pray to Her for that reunion and for Her to

get us back to Her in answer to our prayers – this is the great

Leela of Duality wherein She exhibits Her Infinite Compassion ! So

when one prays with Bhakti for such release She releases Him by

giving Him that Wisdom of Enlightenment.

It is wrong to think that the goal of Bhakti lies in the dualistic

attitude of being separate from God. It is by this wrong assumption

that people ask the question: How can a jnAni exhibit Bhakti? In the

very path of Bhakti wherein it appears there is an embedded duality,

the same Bhakti would lead the practitioner to the stage where he

will ask: Oh God ! May I be one with You ! This is the subtle point

which the questioning people miss. When that stage comes to the

devotee, the very parA-shakti known as kArya-brahman or saguNa-

brahman will bless him with that jnAna that takes him to the non-

dual kAraNa-brahman or nirguNa-brahman.

Not everybody can practise the path of jnAna that brings the

realisation of the mahA-vAkyas by sravaNa (hearing), manana

(thinking and recalling) and nididhyAsana (contemplating). Only when

the mind vanishes one can realise the Self as the Absolute brahman.

If that is so, the real question is: How to kill the truant mind,

which refuses to be subdued, much less vanquished ? The very effort

of vanquishing the mind has to be done by the mind only. How can it

kill itself ? The palm can slap another; but it cannot slap itself.

Though we are thus brought to a dilemma, there is a supreme power

which has created all these minds. So instead of self-effort to kill

our minds, we should leave it to the parA-shakti and surrender to

Her. Instead of falling at the feet of the witness for the

prosecution we fall at the feet of the prosecutor himself ! Then

She will help us quell the mind; She will grace us with the

necessary jnAna.

(To be continued)

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PraNAms to all devotees of ambaaL.

profvk