lakshmi-nrsimha karAvalamba stOtram-9

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Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

 

The 4th Verse of the "lakshmi-nrismha-karAvalamba stOtram" deals with

the second most primal fear of man viz. the "fear of the senses":

 

"samsAra-jAla-pati-tasya …sarvEndriyArTha-baDishArTha-jashOpamasya

prOth-Kandita-prachura-tAluka-mastakasya … lakshmi-nrsimha! mama dEhi

karAvalambam!".

 

Like fish drawn by lethal bait

And then tangled, impaled and shred…

These mortal coils too have lured and trapped

My soul and every sense …

 

In this verse, we see the interesting metaphors of the "fish" and

"net"… "jAla-pati-tasya"… being employed to archetype or symbolise a

particularly complex form of human fear.

 

Sankara's metaphor is very rich with meaning and suggestion … and we

must not hesitate to strain every nerve and muscle of whatever powers

of poetic appreciation we possess in exploring it in as full a measure

as possible in order to experience the beauty of this "stOtrA".

 

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

 

The theme of this verse is basically a re-statement of a very well

known, very extensively discussed, scarcely understood and rarely, if

ever, practised proposition of Vedantic thought.

 

The bare thought, shorn of all customary philosophical embellishments,

can be summarised in a few lines as below:

 

"On the narrow course of spiritual endeavour one can easily be lead

astray by the senses. As fish are led to death by laying a simple

bait, so is man deflected to ruin by the myriad enchantments of his

senses ("sarvEndriyArtha-s"). Beware, thus, of the worldly spells

thine own senses cast upon you!"

 

In a verse of extraordinary beauty in the famous poetic offering

titled "abeethi-stavam", Swami Desikan, our redoubtable "kavi-simham",

too affirmed (in a not altogether different context) the same Vedantic

truth in terms of precisely the same poetic metaphor chosen by Sankara

bhagavathpAdA:

 

" biBhEti Bhava-Brth prabhO tvad~upadesha-teevrowshadAth

ka~dhaDhva-rasa-durvishay balisha-Bakshavath preeyathE I

apaThya-parihAraThi- vimuKha~miTha~mAkismakee

tamappya-vasarE kramAdavati vatsalA tvadyayA" II (Verse 10)

 

My free translation:

 

As swarms of fish unto ruin seduced

By charming maggots on a deadly line,

Thoughtless men embrace too

The myriad baits of un-virtue.

 

To those the world has thus entranced,

Thy Word is nothin' but bitter pill --

The folly of men medicine shan't mend

Ranga, Thy kindness swiftly will!

 

 

Both poets, the bhagavatpAdA and Swami Desikan, we clearly see above,

have taken a leaf out of Sri-Krishna's book, the 'Bhagavath-Gita'.

While expounding to Arjuna the essential nature of Man's senses

("indriya-s"), SriKrishna, as we all know, proclaimed:

 

"indriyasyEndriyasyArthE…etc.… tau hi asya paripanthinau!" (Ch.3 Verse

34)

"The senses… and the objects they perceive… are indeed mighty

stumbling-blocks along the path the Seeker of Truth takes."

 

Thus, what is conveyed by way of a profound exhortation in the Gita

above ("tvad~upadesha", Swami Desikan calls it) finds its poetic

equivalent in the tremulous expressions of fear voiced by Sankara in

the lines, "samsAra-jAla-pati-tasya

…sarvEndriyArTha-baDishArTha-jashOpamasya prOth-Kandita-prachura-

tAluka-mastakasya …".

 

 

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Now, if you analyse the matter thoroughly it may seem odd and ironic

that the Gita or the LNKS should caution us all about the fearful

nature of the senses , the "sarvEndriya-s".

 

The abilities of the five senses ("karmEndriya-s" in Sanskrit), as we

all know, number five… sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.

 

Then there are the "intelligent senses" or "gnyAnEndriya-s". These are

the mind… "manas" and the intellect … "buddhi".

 

It is by virtue of possessing the 7 sensual abilities that a living

being… man, for instance… earns the right to be regarded as having

"sensibility" or "being sensible".

 

It is with the instruments of "sensibility" indeed that we perceive

and comprehend this world. With the indispensable aid of the 5

"karmEndriya-s" we invest this vast world around us ("samsAra") with

form, substance, colour and size. And then with the aid of the

"gnyAnEndriya-s" we vest the world with attributes and

intelligibility.

 

Truly speaking, if we did not possess the senses, we could never

really "know" the world in the state and condition it is in. And when

one is seen to "not know the world" one is quite liable to be

condemned by it as being "senseless".

 

With the exception of the dead and, occasionally perhaps, the

demented, to those without the possession of any one or more of their

senses… the"sarvEndriya-s"… to them the world is indeed a very nasty,

very inhospitable place. The blind, for example … i.e. those who

possess no "sight"… inspire pity in us; the leper… who has lost the

sense of "touch"… fills us with vague revulsion; and the lunatic… he

who has become "mindless" … we expeditiously banish from our midst.

 

Therefore, if you consider it all from a purely secular standpoint,

the possession of all the 7 senses intact… our "sarvEndriya-s"…

ought to really be regarded as an unqualified blessing of God

Almighty and for which we should remain supremely grateful!

 

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

 

Then why… why indeed… does the same Almighty give out a sombre warning

that our "senses", verily, constitute the bane… the "paripanthinau",

(to use Sri.Krishna's severe term for it)... the greatest obstacle to

realising our true purpose in life?

 

On the one hand, our common experience tells us the senses are

Heaven's gift to us. But on the other, the collective wisdom of the

poetry of Sri.Krishna, Sankara bhagavathpAdA and Swami Desikan warns

us that our wayward "senses" are indeed the biggest hindrance to the

progress of our souls!!

 

Somewhere in all this there seems to be a cruel and inscrutable irony,

isn't it?

 

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

 

If we must set about understanding the irony we must subject Sankara's

expression "jAla-pati-tasya" to close examination.

 

Or to be more specific, the clue to understanding our fear of the

wayward senses... "sarvEndriya-s"... lies in the study of behaviour of

fish beguiled by bait into a vicious net.

 

But we must continue in the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

Sudarshan

 

 

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