lakshmi-nrsimha karavalamba stotram - 3

[Guest guest]

Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

 

The "virakti" of the anchorite, the "vanaprastA" or the "r-shi" is very

different from the "virakti" (be-numbing world-weariness) known to

afflict ordinary mortals like us.

 

In what ways?

 

In the following ways:

 

** The "virakti" of the "r-shi" represents the triumph of human spirit

over matter. Our "virakti" symbolizes the exact opposite.

 

** The "virakti" of the hermit is his ticket to flights of soaring

awareness. It signals his nearness to God.

Our 'virakti' is a millstone we fasten around our spiritual necks. It

signals our distance from God.

 

** The "virakti" of the "r-shi" is a carefully cultivated attitude of

mind. Our "virakti" is a pathological symptom of the manifold fears that

beset us in life.

 

** The "virakti" of the "vanaprastA", whereby he is urged to reject the

society of men and worldly existence … that kind of "virakti" is an

outcome of exercising clear and robust individual choice.

Our "virakti", in contrast, is merely an expression of inner despair.

 

** To the ancient "r-shi" his "virakti" represented valuable means to a

higher end. It signified personal freedom and the limitless expansion of

opportunities on one's spiritual horizon. To him "virakti" was the

soul's hope.

To us however "virakti" constitutes the very opposite: the end to all

higher endeavour. It is grim fatalism…. a spiritual cul-de-sac from

which all routes to Godhead, we feel, have been completely sealed off.

 

************** ***************** **************

 

If you think deeply enough about the matter, most of us do not possess

the capacity to recognize even the canker of "virakti" within us… not to

speak of our inability to either deal or cope with it.

 

It is only through the works of saints, the poets and the great

"AchAryA-s" that we gain some measure of understanding of the true

nature of feelings of world-weariness. If it weren't for stOtrA-s like

the "karAvalamba-stOtram" (LNKS) we would never be able to articulate

the tragic "virakti" of common humanity. Without the words of the

"AchAryA-s", handed down to us to help express our condition of

"virakti", our plight would have been no different from that of a dumb

and helpless infant --- flailing its limbs and wailing incoherently and

yet unable to convey with any degree of intelligibility to the outside

world the ordeal of hunger it daily undergoes.

 

P.B.Shelley thus wrote for us those famous lines of spiritual despair:

 

"Lift me as a wave, a leaf , a cloud…

I fall upon the thorns of life-

I bleed ….".

 

Swinburne too wrote, for our benefit, of the tragic "virakti" of common

mankind:

 

"These many years since we began

What have the gods done to us?

What with me and what with my love?

They have shown me fates and fears

Harsh springs bitterer than the sea

Grief a fixed star and joy

A vane that veers these many years…."

 

Omar Khayyam, the Persian bard, in his "Rubaiyyat" sang about the same

theme of 'virakti':

 

"Whether at Naishapur or Babylon

Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run

The Wine of Life oozes drop by drop

The Leaves of Life drop one by one."

 

And nearer home, the great saint, our dearest Tondar-adi-podi AzhwAr,

indeed brought out the very quintessence of "virakti" in the 3rd stanza

of his "tirumAlai":

 

"vEda-noor pirAyyUm nooru manisarthAm pUgUvarElUm

pAthiyyUm Urangi-pOgUm ninratheer padhinai-Andu

pEdhai bAlagan-athAgUm peeNi pasi-mUppU~thhUnbum

Ada-lAl piravi vEndEn, arangamA nagaruLAnE !"

 

(my free translation):

 

A hundred seasons have Thou leased me, O Ranga

To live, love and mellow in the wisdom of Thy knowledge ---

But half must I spend perforce in slumber

And a quarter to waste in dissolute youth;

And if the rest passeth over the years

In care, illness, and senility…

What's left of thy wondrous gift, O Ranga,

Is what I'd rather do without!

 

*************** *************** *************

 

We will continue in the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

 

Sudarshan

 

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